Theme: Access and Equity

A Black couple reflects on unconscious bias in medicine: “I shouldn’t have to start flashing all these badges in order for you to respond.”

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A Black couple reflects on unconscious bias in medicine: “I shouldn’t have to start flashing all these badges in order for you to respond.”

Black parents of a boy with Trisomy 18 reflect on their experience from his in-utero diagnosis onwards and the possibility that their race impacted the care and conversations the medical system was having with them. Mom felt that they thought she didn’t understand the prognosis, that she was ignorant. “I find myself having to show our education and who we are . . . I shouldn’t have to wear a college degree on my shoulder. I shouldn’t have to change the way I speak in order for you to listen to me. You shouldn’t have to google us to listen to me.” They also note their perception/vibe that the clinicians don’t assume the father is actually the father. They eventually found the right team to be their son’s champions and pave the way so that race and the diagnosis are less of a factor, ‘opening the door for us and making it easier for us to walk in.’