Kamiah N. didn’t like what she was seeing. The infant mortality rate of African American babies in her community was nearly four times that of babies who were white and of other racial groups. She had experienced this personally: When she was 19, her first child died four days after birth from conditions that, had she known, could have been prevented during pregnancy.

Kamiah grew up in an impoverished, mostly African American neighborhood in a midsized city, known as NorthTown. When she became pregnant, she relied on her friends or others in her neighborhood to tell her what she needed to know. She didn’t consider going to a doctor; regular health care was not readily accessible or affordable for the families in her neighborhood, most of whom were uninsured. In addition, Kamiah had heard rumors that the pregnant women from their neighborhood who did visit doctors were at risk of having their child taken away by Child Protective Services after birth because

“they always run a drug screen on you to see if you used drugs during pregnancy” or because you neglected your and the baby’s health during pregnancy.

But when Kamiah became pregnant again, she was determined to find out what could be done to make sure her second baby survived. She began researching infant mortality and discovered the leading cause of infant mortality in her community was low birth weight and shortened gestation periods. Most low-weight babies were born prematurely, and many that were full term were small because of the youngness of the mother or because the mother did not gain enough weight during pregnancy. She also discovered that many African American mothers are wary of hospitals and doctors. A 2018 National Vital Statistics Report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that African American mothers are 2.3 times more likely than white mothers to wait to begin prenatal care until their third trimester of pregnancy or to not receive prenatal care at all (Osterman & Martin, 2018).

Despite her apprehensions, Kamiah decided to go to a free clinic during her pregnancy. In doing so, she learned firsthand why young women like her would not want to visit a doctor. She felt judged by the clinic’s white medical professionals, and when she said she wanted to have her baby at home because she couldn’t afford a hospital, the doctors said that wasn’t possible and that CPS could become involved if she did.

When Kamiah attended a Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) conference on prenatal care, she learned about something she had never heard about before—doulas. Doulas are trained professionals who offer physical, emotional, and informational support to moms-to-be before, during, and after birth. But the price tag for doula care was anywhere from $250 to $2,000, which meant a doula was not an option for Kamiah or any of the low-income women in her neighborhood.................

Questions 

1. How would you describe Kamiah’s leadership traits?

2. Of the six major traits described in the chapter (i.e., intelligence, confidence, charisma, determination, sociability, and integrity), which traits are Kamiah’s strongest?

3. Of these traits, which do you think is naturally strong for Kamiah, and which did she learn?

4. What different traits did Kamiah exhibit in her ability to get others to support her, such as the executive director of the YWCA? The grandmothers in the neighborhood? The groups where the audiences were mostly white?