When the Bough Breaks: Post-Viewing Activity

After viewing When the Bough Breaks, please response to ONE of the following questions after reading the first quote:

Neonatologist Dr. Richard David says: “there’s something about growing up as a Black female in the United States that’s not good for your childbearing health.”

• What evidence did Dr. Collins and David discover that undercuts genetic explanations for racial disparities in birth outcomes?

• Why is it significant that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers?

• Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

27 thoughts on “When the Bough Breaks: Post-Viewing Activity

  1. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?
    “Women who perceived that they had been treated unfairly on the basis of their race, whether it was looking for work, in an educational setting, or a variety of other settings, had more than two-fold increased risk of very low birth weight infant”. According to Dr. Richard David racism does take some kind of physical toll on the human body through the course of one’s lifespan. According to James Collins recent data suggests that chronic stress associated with being a minority, for some biological reason, increases the risk of delivering a premature infant. This can be seen as a valid argument since stress has been know to have its effect on the human body, whether its through diseases or anything of that nature.

  2. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    I feel the answer to this question lies in the fact that they African American women with college degrees. There is a lot of inherent racism associated with this accomplishment. And while the women are quite proud of their accomplishments, they had to endure and internalize a lot of racism to accomplish their dream. Its ironic that the effort to overcome racism and be able to give their children a better life ends up causing so much harm. African American who attend college and aspire to be better than the stereotype end up causing more harm. As it was stated in the video, stress happens not in the year of conception but it is a life long effect on the mother and that’s where it needs to be addressed. I’m sure if interviewed all these African American women would have a lot of examples of internalized racism or even blatant racism.

  3. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    The film discussed and researched numerous possibilities for low birth-weight babies in African American mothers. Scientists and researchers looked into race (by comparing black, white, black immigrant, and white immigrant), social inequality, social economic status, lifestyle, pre-disposition gene, and stress. Out of all of those I believe only stress can be considered a valid reason and the rest would be contributing factors to stress. The rest was proven to not be completely true based on the example discussed in the film. For example a high social economic status African American mother who happens to be a lawyer and living a healthy lifestyle had a premature birth. The reason for the premature birth is definitely not due to her social economic status or her lifestyle. An interview with a group of African American ladies revealed some insights in regard to race. They often have internalize racism. They worry about their child’s education, their child being profiled, and their child being exposed to racism or discrimination. These are things that white American mothers do not worry about. The constant worrying about their race leads to stress. Other factors such as inequality in regards to pay, employment, and purchasing a home or a car also contribute to their stress. All of these stressors contribute to chronic stress in African American mothers which leads to the release of stress hormones. The stress hormones then causes African American mothers to have a premature birth. The difference between African American mothers and white American and African immigrant women is that they are not equal in terms of factors that contribute to stress. African American women are exposed to more stress in comparison.

  4. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    African American mothers have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women because of racism. Racism takes a toll on the woman’s body. African American women worry about being discriminated against and even worry about their child eventually get discriminated against. All of this stress is not good for the body and affects the child they are carrying, putting the child at risk to be born premature and have other health issues.

  5. Why is it significant that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers?

    Statistically, their mothers came from far worse off countries in terms of clean water, housing, food and stability. These regions were war torn and while there are very nice cities, towns and areas (just like any country) the majority of the population in the Northern African countries are living in poverty with horrible conditions. The point of all this is to show that the sheer amount of stress exerted on their mothers from their home countries, as well as the stress of immigrating to a new country AND fighting racism there. But their daughters are still showing higher infant mortality rates? Clearly there is a gigantic level of stress being applied from social injustices (completely ignoring economic disparities for argument’s sake). If that isn’t statistically significant I’m not quite sure what is.

  6. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    The reason why African American mother have low birth- weight baby even though they finish college degree then American and African immigrant women. It because stress and racism. when you are stress it can lead to your body not functioning right even a normal person when they are stress it can lead to sickness and other stuff. You just can’t imagine when a pregnant person is stress out about their jobs and not getting paid well enough or not getting hire because of their race. This are some of the reasons why it would lead to have low birth rate or premature birth.

  7. African American mothers have lower birth-weight babies because of the systematic racism that they have to go through every single day of their lives. There was a part in the film that spoke directly about how constant stress while being pregnant can lead to premature births. That stress can come from racism or stereotypes that they encounter in their daily lives. It’s odd that this only happens in African-American women, but not surprising given the things that African-Americans have to go through living in the United States. Specifically, when talking about African-American women with great education and lifestyles—have to endure even more racism and stereotypes to live the life that they want to live.

  8. Why is it significant that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers?

    The significance is that this trend shows there is a compounding variable for African immigrants daughters that isn’t present within their mothers. Racism is that key variable and in the film it stated that one generation in the U.S is all it takes for an African immigrant to become at higher risk for lower birth-weight babies. This is due to the effects of increased racism and disadvantages for people of color. Daughters of African immigrants grow up to have their own children and in turn have to worry about the school they’re sent to, the children they will be around, the things in life that happened to you that you wouldn’t want repeated, etc. In the film a mother said that she had to worry when her child asked to play with some other children and they simply looked away and didn’t bother to answer. Many kids often feel themselves to blame for these racist events and that in turn increases the racist stressor for many women.

  9. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    African American mothers with college degrees also have low birth-weight babies because they are just as exposed to racism as an African-American mother without a college degree. Whether racism is less common in college does not make a difference on the effect it has on those mothers. In fact, it might be possible that they experience more racism than a African-American without a college degree. Systematic racism experienced everyday takes a toll on these women by causing them stress that can be harmful to their children, therefore resulting in low birth-weight. Our society must encourage everyone to try and lose the perspective of “race”. There is only one race and that is the human race.

  10. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    African American who are engaging in societal behavior like getting a degree from college and getting a good paid job but are still having a lower birth weight babies than white American and African immigrant women shows that having college degree doesn’t make a difference. Stress can a cause because stress is encountered in everyday hassles and that can build up daily which can lead to a problems for the human body. For example. The woman in the video has a college degree and has a good job but still had a low weight baby. It could be because of her job as a lawyer. I don’t think being a lawyer is easy so it can be very stressful and stress can cause the body to not function properly. Overall, I believe there are many factors can caused the low birth weight babies but stress is most likely one of them.

  11. Neonatologist Dr. Richard David says: “there’s something about growing up as a Black female in the United States that’s not good for your childbearing health.”

    Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    According to two scientists, Dr. James W. Collins and Richard David, they hypothesize the low birth-weight babies is due to unequal treatment of African Americans in American Society. They have concluded racism is a key factor that contribute to infant low-birth weight. Dr. Michael Lu adds to this about the Life Course Aspect, the experience of the mother’s life affect the infant low birth-weight. Scientists have provided evidence that racism + stress have an impact on pregnancy. In the 1980s, social programs were being cut resulting in less jobs available. African Americans were of the minority group with a (14%) chance to receive jobs; African Americans without a criminal record have a lower chance than Whites with criminal records. Kim Andersen, an African American women born in the United States receives higher education, has a good job, doesn’t smoke, and eats healthy. In 1980, Kim gave birth to an infant weighing 2 pounds and 13 ounces. Although higher education greatly improve the low birth-weight situation for African American women, there is still a chance of giving birth to an infant with low birth-wright. The daughters of African-American immigrants born in the United States are more susceptible to racism producing certain stress levels going as far as chronic stress from being of a minority group leading to stress impact on pregnancy. Stress affects the womb, and placenta which slows down the supply of blood from placenta to the infant in the womb, also stress induced early labor resulting in premature birth. With these evidence, I can conclude as well racism and stress have a major impact on African American mothers born in the United States resulting in infant low birth-weight than White Americans and African immigrant women.

  12. Why is it significant that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers?
    The answer is quite simple. the daughters of African American immigrants are not African immigrants like their mothers. They are considered rather African American in the sense that, not only these women were born in America, but also they experience the stressful life style of most African African American from American parents. Knowing the negative consequences of stress on our mental and physical health and also its harmful impact on a pregnancy outcomes, by affecting the hormones that trigger early labor, it is not surprising that the daughters of African immigrants had worst birth outcomes than their mothers. In short, we can say that racism creates chronic stress and stress in turn creates poor pregnancy outcomes such as premature birth and low birth weight along with long terms disabilities for the baby.

  13. Why is it significant that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers?

    I think it is significant to distinguish the fact that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers because this shows that there is something about being born and raised in America from an African decent that causes African Americans to have worse birth outcomes. That something, I believe, is stress. This stress comes from racism. Being discriminated against, facing racial profiling, dealing with inequalities probably puts a lot of stress on an individual. And stress, as we have learned, can cause a myriad of illness ranging from cardiovascular problems, to obesity, to psychological problems. It can definitely affect the body in negative ways even when a mother is pregnant which then causes the infant to be affected as well. This stress from racism causes these infants to have worse birth outcomes.

    • Also, I think it has a lot to do with being torn between two cultures as well. One side being African and the other side being American. That can cause even more stress.

  14. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    Its presumably an effect of the toll racism on the body of the mother that carries over to the child. As we have been learning about stress on the human body and how it accumulates over time, its horrible, yet fascinating, to see that something like racism actually has effects on an offspring. Even if you believe you live a very healthy lifestyle, racism can have negative outcomes during pregnancy. So your child is never a “clean slate.” From the get go, a child can be at an inherent disadvantage due to a problematic birth, due to racism and stress. Its a vicious cycle, sadly.

  15. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women because of stress. Most African American mothers have internalize racism even with a college degree. They experience racism on a daily basis which build up as stress overtime such as worrying about getting a job after college. The study has shown us that build up stress in a mother can cause to deliver premature birth baby.

  16. What evidence did Dr. Collins and David discover that undercuts genetic explanations for racial disparities in birth outcomes?

    Dr. Collins discovers that African American Mothers regardless of their income or social status had a premature birth rate if they had experienced racism during their teenage years. The fact that a lot of these women had experienced at some point in time racism was genetically encoded into the womb of a mother because these women were faced in a stressful situation during their like theorized as their life course perspective. As shown in the video we saw that a mother who was perfectly normal had a successful career gave birth to a premature baby. The blood pressure of mothers who faced racism remained constant overworking the body. The blood pressure of white women decreased remaining normal. The exposure to racism caused the systems in the body to overwork themselves.

  17. — Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    This just all ties down to racism and stress. For instance, if a doctor were to see that you’re African American, you could be given less of a treatment and care as oppose to a white American woman. And stress, as to how the world sees them. African Americans have more stress because of their color, and their history. These type of stress builds up overtime and causes the low birth rates. Somehow like, giving up because the worlds sees them this way anyway why should I put so much emphasis on trying to better myself for the world? Because even if African Americans were to do good in the world, many would still see them otherwise. That’s how the stress builds up.

  18. I believe African American women have low birth weight babies for a number of reasons one being stress. stress takes a huge toll on the body and causes the body to react in ways that can be harmful to the unborn baby the mother may experience weight loss, contract gestational diabetes or not properly care for herself. the job markets are still competitive to get into because some jobs are still paying women less than the men and also some jobs feel as if women aren’t qualified even with degrees.

  19. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    I assume whether African American mothers are graduated from college or not, the stress and pain they have to live with are more harmful to babies. Giving a birth has nothing to do with education or any circumstances.
    African women in the United States are having stress from racism and it results in low-birthweight.

  20. • Why is it significant that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers?

    This is significant because it shows that these issues are not a genetic disorder being passed down between generations that is effecting Black women. It shows that something is clearly happening in this country that is causing Black women to give birth to low weight babies. This helps to show that it is the stress caused by racism or even the threat of racism that is causing these women to give birth to low weight babies.

  21. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?
    In the Post Viewing, black women who lived in a higher socioeconomic status still had babies that were premature. Race was internalized and the effect was stress. Stress led to a lower immune system and then an early delivery of a baby. I think it is important to pay attention to what causes the stress and try as much as possible to remove or avoid the stressors as much as we can. In this video, racial discrimination was one of the stressors. Being female is another stressor. According to the culture, religion and country that we came from, women are taught that they are lower class citizens. This has an effect on how we view ourselves.
    Even today, the declaration of Independence still has that all men are created equal. Some people in the United States, still literally believe that it is only men, and not women and men are created equal. People of different shades of skin color still are not treated equally. Honestly the Declaration of Independence needs to be re-written.
    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” —The Declaration of Independence
    According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), access to care measures include facilitators and barriers to care and health care utilization experiences of subgroups defined by race and ethnicity, income, education, availability of health insurance, limited English proficiency, and availability of a usual source of care.
    In this video, this woman was a lawyer. Her job was very stressful. This may have also contributed to her premature delivery. Every woman’s body is different when we compare genes, hormones, size, shape and function. Every pregnancy is different for that woman based on her race, culture and beliefs.
    People who are poorer and have less education are more likely to suffer from diseases, to experience loss of functioning, to be cognitively and physically impaired, and to experience higher mortality rates.
    But this woman had a higher economic standard of life. She had a college degree and yet had a premature baby. If societal beliefs about our race is affecting our health then we should do

  22. • Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?
    African american mothers have experienced social discrimination and psychological stress more than white mothers. They have experienced discrimination when looking for job opportunities, at work, at school, in public places, doctor’s appointment. Chronic stress is a more prominent feature in the daily lives of African American women than in the daily lives of White women. A more educated black woman may, on a chronic basis, experience more discrimination and more constant awareness and fears of it, because she is far more likely than her less educated black counterpart to be working, playing, shopping, and traveling in a predominantly white world.

  23. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    – It is said that African American mothers have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrants because they have to deal with the chronic stress related them being a minority that constantly has to struggle and is socially discriminated against. The stress has been embedded into their DNA which in turn affects the child.

  24. • Why is it significant that the daughters of African immigrants had worse birth outcomes than their mothers?

    It is significant because it shows that the problem never existed for the mothers. The problem didn’t arise until the development of the children of the immigrants. That shows that the problem is not the race but how the race is treated after coming here.

  25. Why do African American mothers – even those with college degrees – have more low birth-weight babies than white American and African immigrant women?

    i think that African Americans have more low birth weight babies because it has something to do with the unequal treatment of African Americans in the american society and the long term exposure to this type of stress can be translated to their offspring even before the baby is born.

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