I think I could touch on the significance of this year’s Black Maternal Health Week (BMHW) theme, Our Bodies Belong to Us: Restoring Black Autonomy and Joy, for many posts to come. What might seem like a simple statement, comes with lots of baggage, emotional toil, and strife.

Sure, we know that OUR bodies belong to US. The collective our, the collective us, but for birthing folks of color, it’s different.

Each year the theme of this week is carefully chosen by BMMA-affiliated partners to make sure that it captures the spirit behind the efforts to amplify the voices, perspectives, and lived experiences of birthing people of color. Maternal deaths in this country continue to rise and recent data shows that those rates have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

The fact that Roe V. Wade was overturned just a few months ago combined with what feels like never-ending attacks against reproductive rights and bodily autonomy, this year’s BMHW theme speaks to the enormous strength, power, resilience, and unassailable right to live freely, safely, and safely joyfully. Our work isn’t done until black birthing bodies are liberated, respected, and protected. When we’ve accomplished those things, we add to the sacred power of black and brown families and systems of care.