Medical Xpress July 22, 2024
During a checkup with her obstetrician, Marilyn Hayes tells him about overwhelming exhaustion and possible symptoms of postpartum depression, such as feeling unsafe. Hayes, a Black woman, grows increasingly frustrated as her white, male physician, Dr. Richard Flynn, dismisses her symptoms and ignores her wishes when she refuses medication. Hayes becomes visibly uncomfortable when Flynn touches her without permission and makes comments steeped in Black stereotypes, such as assuming that she’s unmarried and the baby’s father is uninvolved with her and their infant.
While Hayes and Flynn are fictional characters depicted in a virtual reality video, Hayes’ experiences are similar to those of many Black women and women of color when they interact with clinicians and their staff members, studies...
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