Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

English

Committee Director

Ruth Osorio

Committee Member

Kristi Costello

Committee Member

Kevin DePew

Committee Member

DaShaunda Taylor

Abstract

Storytelling is a foundational component of Black knowledge creation and transmission. This dissertation centers Black women’s stories of birth and mothering—drawing on both primary source birth stories and fictional narratives—to examine the United States’ Black Maternal Health Emergency (BMHE). The BMHE is a complex and urgent issue wherein structural racism, medical bias, and intersecting social determinants disproportionately endanger the health of Black mothers. As such, Black mothers in the United States are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related condition compared to their white counterparts.

This study examines the birth stories of women who survived the BMHE and women who did not, alongside literary representations of what I term “Contrarian Mothers” in Toni Morrison’s novels Beloved and Sula. Drawing on Black feminist thought and narrative inquiry, I analyze how these lived and literary narratives function as instructive activist interventions that challenge dominant frameworks for maternal health. Collectively, these stories situate Black mothers as vital producers of knowledge, confront overarching narratives that seek to victimize them, and demand that their voices are heard in order to imagine community-specific solutions to the BMHE.

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.25777/54vj-gv85

ISBN

9798197809278

ORCID

0000-0002-2763-7074

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