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Short abstract:

Current forms of data collection are exposing Black patients and birth workers to carceral risks. This paper identifies a class of birth workers called Black-centered birth workers who are engaging in vigilant practice that negotiates the benefits of data collection against their capacity for harm.

Long abstract:

In the United States, Black pregant patients face disproportionately high rates of pregnancy-related deaths, and these rates continue to increase over time (Hoyert 2023). Set against this backdrop, many of the most prominent interventions in birth-related care rely on forms of increased data collection. This foundation on data, however, overlooks the risk of incorporation into carceral systems that monitor, constrain, and discipline Black individuals.

If existing technologies are underserving Black birthing people, both in terms of health outcomes and also the risk of exposure to carceral systems, then what is the alternative? How might digital technologies meant to improve health outcomes for Black birthing people actually accomplish their goals? How do birth workers utilise situated expertise to adress harmful data collection practices?

This paper investigates these questions through extensive interviews with birth-care professionals, including clinicians, midwives, doulas, and other support staff for a range of birth venues. I identify a specific subset of birth-care professionals — Black-centered birth workers — who not only provide prenatal care for Black birthing people, but also incorporate an awareness of obstetric racism into their work. The result is a form of vigilant practice, which protects Black birthing people from potentially harmful experiences of data collection and guides them through institutional encounters with special care to the carceral realities of birthing technologies.