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Maternal Healthcare Experiences Of African American Women In Milwaukee : A Relational Dialectics Perspective, Comfort Tosin Adebayo

Theses and Dissertations

Black women are experiencing pregnancy-related complications at a significantly higher rate than women of other races in the U.S., as Black women are three to four times likely to die from pregnancy-related complications compared to non-Hispanic White women (CDC, 2019a). I applied relational dialectics theory (Baxter, 2011), a critical communication theory, to examine dominant and marginalized discourses that are present in women’s talk about maternal care. I conducted interviews with 31 African American women living in Milwaukee county, Wisconsin. Women narrated their pregnancy stories, noting how they constructed meaning through the interactions they had with healthcare providers. Through a contrapuntal …