My daughter is the light of my life, but her birth could have killed me. It wasn’t a glamorous Hollywood birth scene like those I’d penned countless times for Grey’s Anatomy. My labor was considered ‘normal,’ which meant 22 hours of agonizing pain, pacing, doubling over, and vomiting every few minutes. After four grueling hours of pushing, a vacuum assist was required to deliver my daughter because her head was stuck. Relief washed over me as I held my healthy baby, but my tears were dry from dehydration. It was in that moment of joyous exhaustion that the situation took a terrifying turn. Blood began pouring from my body, pooling on the hospital floor. The medical team reacted swiftly, but I realized just how precarious my life had become. The drug that saved me, misoprostol, is now banned from emergency carts in Louisiana because, despite its incredible effectiveness in stopping postpartum hemorrhaging, it can also be used to induce abortion. The irony is not lost on me. After packing with sponges and nine stitches, I spent months recovering, both from the blood loss and the discovery of a forgotten sponge inside me. This is a story I share not for shock value but to illuminate a truth often hidden in the societal narrative of motherhood. We glorify the beautiful baby but silence the brutality of the process, the physical and emotional wounds that accompany pregnancy, miscarriage, labor, birth, and motherhood. This silence, this cultural pressure to pretend everything is perfect, contributes to the erosion of women’s rights. It allows laws to be passed that force women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, regardless of the consequences. My complications were relatively minor. My pain was heard, my needs were met. But for many women, particularly Black women, whose pain is systematically dismissed and disbelieved, childbirth in America is a terrifying gamble. It is too often fatal. The stakes are incredibly high. We are bombarded with news of crisis, leaving us tempted to believe that our votes don’t matter. But in the realm of women’s reproductive health, the situation is dire. If this election goes the wrong way, the consequences will be devastating. The side aiming to outlaw abortion in all 50 states will win if we remain silent. They will win if women, young voters, progressive voters, voters of color, and LGBTQIA voters stay home. Your vote matters. For 50 years, Roe v. Wade protected our legal right to abortion, a vital medical procedure. Then, a man who bragged about sexual assault appointed a Supreme Court justice credibly accused of attempted rape. Roe was overturned, replaced by Dobbs. The irony is sickening. Men who assault and rape women are now deciding whether women must carry unwanted pregnancies to term. This dystopian nightmare is unfolding right now in America. I was 16 when I lost my virginity to date rape. The trauma of that experience, the weeks spent watching the calendar and praying for my period, are etched in my memory. I cannot imagine the compounded trauma if abortion hadn’t been a legal option. Yet, countless women and girls across the country are enduring that exact reality, with an estimated 134 rape-induced pregnancies occurring daily in states with abortion bans. Please hear me: Your vote matters. In my twenties, my best friend experienced a wanted pregnancy that turned out to be ectopic. The embryo attached to her fallopian tube, causing it to burst, and she nearly bled to death. It was a harrowing experience that could have ended tragically. Doctors who saved her life explained that if she had sought treatment sooner, they could have dissolved the pregnancy with medication, preventing the need for emergency surgery. But today, in states with abortion bans, doctors face an impossible choice: withhold help until the situation becomes life-threatening or risk imprisonment for murder. Women are dying because of this delay. The reality is chilling. It’s Orwellian. It’s Atwoodian. It’s happening right now in America. This is why your vote matters. Make reproductive rights the driving force behind your vote in this election. Imagine your wife, sister, or best friend dying in front of you because a doctor is too afraid to act, because the law prohibits them from providing the care she desperately needs. Imagine the tragedy of a woman being raped and denied an abortion, only to bleed to death during childbirth because a life-saving drug is unavailable. These scenarios are not hypothetical. They are happening now. Vote like our lives depend on it. Because they do.
My Childbirth Nightmare: A Wake-Up Call on Women’s Reproductive Rights
