When a pregnant Georgia woman went into labor earlier this month, she planned for the two doulas she hired to stand beside her as she gave birth.
Instead, those doulas say, security officers and county police escorted them out of the hospital while their client was in active labor, despite her repeated requests that they stay by her side.
The confrontation happened overnight, March 2 to March 3, at Piedmont Henry Hospital in Stockbridge, according to doulas Jet’aime McKinney and Shira Lawrence, who told Capital B Atlanta about the incident.
In videos that the two posted to Instagram, hospital security officers order the doulas to leave the room while the laboring mother, who asked to not be identified, asks that they remain. Her husband was also there.
The doulas say the incident began because the hospital ignored their patient’s wishes about how she wanted the baby to be delivered and stripped away her voice at a critical moment, raising questions about patient autonomy.
McKinney and Lawrence have been working together to provide birth services to women in metro Atlanta and middle Georgia for the past three years. The two doulas provide services like creating a birth plan with their clients, supporting them in their postpartum phase, and breastfeeding support. McKinney said she’s been able to support around 400 families so far throughout her career as a doula.
They said they had been supporting their client since her second trimester of pregnancy.
“What happened to our client is not an isolated incident at all. It is part of a long and deeply troubling pattern in American medicine where Black women’s autonomy, voices, and bodies are disregarded in the name of institutional authority,” Lawrence said.
“This is not just a medical issue. It is a human rights issue,” Lawrence said. “And until the system confronts the racism, coercion, and paternalism embedded within it, Black women will continue to pay the price with their bodies.”
John Manasso, director of external communications at Piedmont, said the hospital could not comment on the situation due to patient privacy but said Piedmont’s priority is “enabling good outcomes for our patients by providing safe, quality care.”
What happened in the hospital
When the doulas arrived at the hospital, their client was admitted and an exam was conducted. During the exam, medical staff determined the baby was in a breech position, meaning that the baby’s bottom rather than the head was positioned to be delivered first.
According to McKinney and Lawrence, the doctor told them that a cesarean section was recommended due to the breech. Their client declined having a C-section and asked instead for pain relief while she considered her options as she was hoping to give birth naturally.
Lawrence said due to their client’s prior health issues, there were concerns about undergoing a C-section.
“It had been confirmed by a previous provider that it was more safe for her to have a vaginal breech birth than to risk the possibility of being put to sleep because sometimes with a cesarean, if the pain blocker isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do, there’s no option except to put the mom to sleep,” Lawrence said.
The doulas say that their client’s request for pain management was denied as the doctor on call continued to push for a C-section despite their client’s wishes. They say the hospital treated the decision to decline the C-section as defiance rather than a choice.
“She was outright denied [pain management] as a form of retaliation, because she was making a choice that differed from what the provider wanted her to do,” Lawrence said. “[The doctor] just waged war against us and did everything he could to make it difficult for mom to make the informed decision that she made clear.”
As their client progressed in labor, McKinney and Lawrence say they continued to advocate for their client’s wish for a vaginal birth, but eventually they say the doctor entered the room with hospital security and ordered everyone except medical staff to leave, telling McKinney and Lawrence that they would not give their client an epidural for the pain until the doulas left the room.
The doulas said they repeatedly asked why they were being removed and requested a patient advocate. Their client, they said, also asked that they stay, but security insisted they leave.
When McKinney refused to leave, she said an officer threatened to physically remove her.
“He told me, ‘Don’t make me put my hands on you,’” she said.
Police were eventually called, and the doulas say they were escorted off the property and waited in the parking garage so they could remain nearby. Shortly afterward, the patient called them.
“She was crying and said, ‘I just wish one of you could be here with me,’” McKinney said.
The woman ultimately delivered her baby via C-section later that morning and the baby was born healthy.
McKinney said that without her or Lawrence in the room at the time of the birth, she has doubts on whether it was medically necessary for the doctor to perform the C-section on their client.
“They said that the baby’s heart tones were dropping, and the baby was in distress, which we have no proof of if that was the case with the baby,” McKinney said.
“He knew that was the only way that she was willing to get a C-section — if something happened to the baby and she wanted to save her baby’s life,” McKinney said. “And if she didn’t have advocates in the room, to be a soundboard, then she’s going to consent.”
McKinney said the experience left their client feeling that her voice had been taken away during the birth.
“She told us, ‘I feel like they stole my birth from me,’” McKinney said.
The doulas’ client declined Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment.
Obstacles Black women face with pregnancy and autonomy
For McKinney and Lawrence, the experience raised broader concerns about Black pregnant patients’ autonomy.
For Black women in particular, the landscape in Georgia for maternal health and pregnancy is already dangerous as the state has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and Black women face significantly higher risks during pregnancy and childbirth.
Rose Horton, the former executive director of Women and Infant Services at Emory Decatur Hospital, told Capital B Atlanta in a previous interview that racism within the medical system is a large factor in why Black women face higher risks during childbirth. Horton said that racism throughout all health care specialties has led to Black patients’ pain and illness being ignored, and that leads to a heightened risk of complications during pregnancy and labor.
“Racism can be especially dangerous for obstetrics,” Horton said. “It’s important that we listen to any complaints from Black women in the prenatal stage because response time is the determining factor a lot of times when it comes to maternal morbidity. That response time is just as important in the postpartum period to ensure that our ending result isn’t maternal mortality.”
In 2021, there were more than twice as many pregnancy-related deaths among Black women as white women in the state, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health.
The disparities and challenges Black mothers face in the health care system have appeared in other states as well, as a recent investigation by ProPublica found that two Black women in Florida were forced to attend court hearings while in labor after doctors sought judicial orders requiring them to undergo cesarean sections they did not want.
According to the Georgia Birth Advocacy Coalition, patients in Georgia have the legal right to decline a medical procedure, like a c-section, while in labor, but a court order could override that patient’s decision.
“Black women in this country continue to face a medical system in which their consent is treated as optional and their bodies as something to be controlled,” McKinney said.
“The field of obstetrics and gynecology in this country began with the exploitation of enslaved Black women whose bodies were used for experimentation without consent,” McKinney said. “Centuries later, Black women are still being overruled, coerced, and forced into interventions they do not choose. The faces may have changed, but the power dynamics remain.”
McKinney and Lawrence say they are filing complaints against the hospital and are looking to take possible legal action related to the incident.
