Motherhood. These days, in the tumultuous sociopolitical climate, it’s a blessing and a curse. But, at the individual level, because the US’s healthcare system values infants and fetuses over the mothers who bring them to term, motherhood has its share of traumas.

All it takes is an ounce of medical neglect and malpractice to rob a new mother of their joyous first moments with their newborns. I connected with Nikki about her traumatic experience during childbirth, and was appalled by her account. It made me realize that the medical superstructure doesn’t care about splitting families apart, nor if a mother nearly dies, as long as a healthy new baby is born.

Every mother deserves to hear their baby’s first cries, experience the first embrace, and not be left in the dark like a disposable implement. Mothers deserve the same, if not more care as their offspring.