Birth Power Book Club: "Sackred Birth" by Dr. Karen Scott

Mobilizing A New Quality Paradigm in Obstetric Care

Hospitals, health plans, and quality organizations often define safety as the absence of preventable harm, using declines in adverse physical outcomes as evidence of better care. Dr. Karen Scott places modern obstetric care in historical context, showing how a long-standing culture of neutral apathy and detached concern toward Black lives, rooted in antebellum anti-Black racism and misogyny, still shapes how quality is understood and evaluated.

Scott argues that prevailing obstetric quality ethics, leadership, measures, and methods overfocus on adverse outcomes while sidelining patient experience and community wisdom. In SACKRED Birth, she calls for a culturally and scientifically rigorous quality paradigm defined for, by, and with Black mothers and birthing people. Through community focus groups and consensus dialogue, she offers new norms and methods for interpreting childbirth care in ways that affirm Black humanity, power, and potential, rather than treating Blackness and Black births as pathology in hospital settings.

Purchase the Book HERE

20% off with this code GLR BD8