- So I'm officially 37 weeks and a day.

I'm tired, [laughing] but I am so excited about my baby.

I'm thrilled, and honored, and to be quite frank, also a little bit terrified.

[chuckling] I'm very aware of the statistics.

That's where a lot of my fear comes from.

- [Narrator] According to the CDC, black mothers, regardless of education or income, die at three to four times the rate of white mothers during or after childbirth in the US.

The stories are heartbreaking.

26-year-old Sha-Asia Washington died during emergency C-section without ever meeting her daughter.

Kira Johnson, a healthy 30-year-old who never missed a prenatal appointment, died after waiting for seven hours for a CT scan.

Even superstars like Serena Williams and Beyonce had birthing scares.

The CDC says that more than half of these deaths are preventable.

They point to a number of reasons for the disparity, including access to prenatal care and missed warning signs.

But a common thread running through many of the tragedies is the often routine dismissal of black women's concerns by healthcare providers.

- Because if the only difference in you and I is the color of our skin, that clearly says it, right?

You're not listened to.

Black women are not listened to.

- [Narrator] Venus Standard and her colleagues are trying to change that by training as many black doulas as they can.

A doula is a professional labor assistant and a patient advocate.

[chill music] Their job is to support birthing people emotionally and physically.

- But we want to keep the pelvis open, okay?

If you have one leg elevated up and have it open, it actually opens their pelvis some, mkay?

Because if their pelvis is closed, what's it impeding?

[class chattering] And you want the baby to continue to descend down.

- [Narrator] And although doulas can't address all the iniquities in the healthcare system, Venus said they can improve the birthing experience for black women.

- It gives the women that they're gonna serve somebody that maybe have a shared experience with them.

The understanding that what they may be going through, the understanding that they're not listened to.

It helps them to have a voice.

- This is a very heavy job.

It is a lot of weight when you step into that space of that birthing family and realize, I'm getting ready to change a life, and not just change a life, but you're changing a legacy.

[soft music] - [Woman] We'll wait for the next contraction.

- I don't know why I'm shaking so much.

- [Women] It's the hormones.

- [Woman] Mm-hmm.

[women laughing] - Okay.

It was imperative for me that I surround myself with black women who hear me, see me, respect my body, respect my baby, and respect the process that I'm going through.

- [Narrator] Erica Lewis is one of the doulas on Naima's care team and is part of the doula training program.

She said she was drawn to becoming a doula because she had a negative birthing experience with her firstborn.

- Few hours into laboring, the doctors came in and said, "Okay, we're gonna go ahead and take you for a C-section."

Nothing was wrong with my baby and nothing was wrong with me.

I refused, my wife also refused, and then the doctors never came back.

So they left me in there from 2:00 am until my son was born at shift change at about 7:15.

When you're in such a vulnerable space, it is very hard to advocate for yourself.

[Naima breathing heavily] - You are doing so good.

My thing is making this space as sacred as possible, because you're bringing in a life into the world, and what better way to bring a life into the world than in love and really peaceful environment.

- [Woman] Oh, look at all that hair.

[women laughing] - [Woman] It's sticking out.

[laughing] - [Woman] Yeah, there he is, he's coming.

[Naima groaning] - [Woman] He here comes.

- [Women] All right.

- There he is.

[women cheering] [baby crying] So that is what I am trying to achieve here is educating people on trusting themselves and their bodies and listening to that.

She did amazing.

- [Narrator] There's not a lot of research yet showing that having a doula will protect black mothers from all the injustices in the healthcare system.

But Naima said it made a difference for her.

- It was exactly what I needed.

It felt like a mother presence, I felt safe, I felt supported.

And yeah, I honestly, I couldn't have imagined my birth being any better than it was.

- No matter how old your child gets, you remember that experience like it was yesterday, and you also pass on that information, so we want them telling a good story versus a horror story.

[light music]