Documentary excerpts and parent testimony at OEC webinar underline obstetric dismissal and introduce a perinatal bill of rights

The Office of Early Childhood webinar included excerpts from Shaquita Lockley’s documentary Eggs Over Easy and multiple personal testimonies that framed how clinical dismissal and delayed diagnosis shape families’ outcomes.

In a recorded segment, filmmaker Shaquita Lockley (speaker 7) said the film aims to make Black reproductive-health experiences visible and urged viewers to practice self-advocacy: "If something doesn't feel right, tell somebody. If the doctor doesn't listen, find another doctor." The documentary clips highlighted intrusive questioning, infertility, and the emotional toll of reproductive loss.

Parent speaker Alzera Pitts (speaker 14) described her son’s birth, later neurological diagnoses and a sense that clinicians did not fully communicate early warning signs. She said services required persistent advocacy: "I had to advocate a lot myself," she told listeners, and urged parents not to accept dismissive answers.

Closing presenter Sayana Devotion (speaker 15), founder of Earth’s Natural Touch, connected past abuses — naming enslaved women Lucy, Betsy and Anarka and the 19th-century experiments of J. Marion Sims — to contemporary obstetric violence and mistrust. Devotion said the CDC reports that a majority of maternal deaths are preventable and introduced a perinatal bill of rights for Black families, stressing principles of respect, cultural humility, informed consent and access to culturally aligned postpartum supports.

Devotion also described Earth’s Natural Touch’s role managing the Office of Early Childhood’s doula network and training doulas across New England, and she urged attendees to use the perinatal bill of rights as a tool for community reflection and advocacy. The webinar concluded with organizers promising to share the bill and resources by email and online.