Finding Your Voice: Fertility & Self-Advocacy with Black & Brown Family Group

It's, it's amazing.

So tell us a little bit more about, uh, Black and Brown Family Group, 'cause you both are the co-founders of, of this group.

Mm-hmm.

When somebody comes to your community, what, what is it that you want them to feel that perhaps they haven't felt anywhere else?

Seen.

Yes.

I think we want them to feel seen, and we want them to feel safe.

Mm.

And, um, yeah, I think that, that level of kind of safety where you feel that, ah, you know, that kind of moment where you can exhale and you can say, "Okay, here is, you know, here are two people who put something together based on my experience, my personal experience.

You know, I'm not sitting, um, in a room where I'm hearing lots of different things and thinking, 'Okay, but this hasn't really touched on my experience due to my ethnicity, my culture,' or anything like that." So I think the main thing is making people feel like they belong.

Yeah.

And that they are, um, part of...

They're not, they're not alone.

And it's a, it's, it's a really good word.

I like that seen.

It's, it just puts it all in one kind of bracket.

Mm.

We really need that in this community.

And when you hear the word representation, um, which we hear a lot, what does that actually mean for parents being represented?

I think, uh, unfortunately, even in the year that we're in now, there's still a lot of, a lot of disparities when it comes to healthcare, when it comes to maternal care, when it comes to childcare.

Um, there's a lot of information and facts and statistics is now coming out about the disparities, whether it's through childbirth, whether it's through conception, whether it's after the child is born.

And I think a lot of the medical knowledge that is known was done many, many years ago.

Um, and things have changed.

Our diet is different now.

Um, and there's a lot of things that is affecting, um, families from different ethnic and racial groups.