Societal Contributors to Black Infertility
Clip: Season 18 Episode 1 | 1m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
A woman struggling with infertility highlights the emotional labor of navigating constant stress.
Few clinicians understand the toll living in a predominantly White society plays on Black fertility. In this clip, a woman struggling with infertility highlights the “emotional labor” required of her to navigate the constant stress she endures.
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Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
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Societal Contributors to Black Infertility
Clip: Season 18 Episode 1 | 1m 29sVideo has Closed Captions
Few clinicians understand the toll living in a predominantly White society plays on Black fertility. In this clip, a woman struggling with infertility highlights the “emotional labor” required of her to navigate the constant stress she endures.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipEBONY MARCELLE: If you ask me from a, like, non-scientific, medical place, I completely blame my infertility on years of night call, years of chronic stress, in predominantly white institutions.
Like, code-switching requires a lot of energy on top of the fact that, like, I'm always a manager in some sort, like, a leader in some sort.
So that's another layer of exhausted energy.
People say, "Oh, if you just relax.
"You're just too stressed.
You know, try to decrease the stress in your life."
What does that mean for somebody like me?
Like, I can't.
Number one, I'm a practice director.
I can't quit my job.
You know, this is my calling, this is my, like, life commitment.
Or, you know, as a Black woman, I function through life chronically stressed.
And I always tell my students, like, as I'm teaching them about, like, what it's like, you know, I give this example of being a manager, and when I have to give feedback to somebody who is not of color, and how I have to make sure there's a certain amount of space and, like, make sure I give a certain type of eye contact, make sure my voice is a certain level.
Um, that's a lot of emotional labor, and I'm the manager giving the feedback.
(chuckles)
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Funding provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.