Shumita Basu

And that meant pushing out their competition, the midwives, who traditionally did the work of maternal care.

That hierarchy is visible at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn, New York.

It's a public hospital that primarily serves a neighborhood with a high poverty rate.

Woodhull's midwifery program draws many patients looking for that type of care.

But if birthing mothers need emergency intervention, they might find themselves in the more traditional and, as is typical, under-resourced hospital setting.

Three women have died in childbirth there since 2020.

Woodhull Hospital hasn't commented publicly on the circumstances of these deaths, citing privacy laws, but families have spoken out to reporters.

And Maggie, the mom that Irin met at the preschool picnic, told Irin about a harrowing experience she had there.

Oh, my God.

Wow.

Wow.

I mean, it's what a story.

And you really describe Jose as such a

fierce advocate for Christine and what she needed in those moments and the incredible frustration of feeling like you're being blocked out and definitely not heard.

In both of these cases, for both of these stories, I'm sure that you sought reaction or statement from Woodhull Hospital.

What has Woodhull said about these instances?

It does sound like Maggie and her husband also considered whether they wanted to go the route of litigation again.

And Maggie describes this in your reporting in the book, like, do I really want to spend my, like, I have a newborn now.

What am I going to spend all my time pursuing litigation against this hospital?

And not only that, it sounds like by the time they learned the severity of some of the long lasting medical issues that she was left with, they were timed out of taking legal action against the hospital, right?