Special Screening in Honor of Black Maternal Health Week

Focus Mid-South

Ray Rico, a Latinx advocate, owns a digital marketing agency and publishes Focus LGBT magazine, amplifying LGBTQ+ voices in Tennessee and the Mid-South. He champions HIV advocacy, fighting stigma and discrimination. Through his work, Ray strives for a more inclusive society.

Black Maternal Health Week: Special Screening of “Death By Delivery”

Black Maternal Health Week takes place April 11 – 17, 2018. The month of April is recognized in the United States as National Minority Health Month – a month-long initiative to advance health equity across the country on behalf of all racial and ethnic minorities.

Join Healthy and Free TN and CHOICES for a special screening of the documentary film “The Naked Truth: Death by Delivery”, followed by a panel on maternal mortality, discussing what can be done about this epidemic disproportionately affecting black women in Tennessee. This event is in partnership with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance http:// blackmamasmatter.org/

ABOUT THE FILM:
Most American women probably don’t spend much time worrying about the medical complications they may face during childbirth. It’s the same reason you don’t worry about polio, scurvy, or malaria — these are all, supposedly, medical traumas that only affect women without access to modern healthcare. Yet, as documentarian Nelufar Hedayat discovered, maternal mortality rates are higher today than they were in 1987. Black women, moreover, are nearly four times more likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts.