Last year, when I gave birth to my daughter, my experience of pain was dismissed by hospital staff, leading to life-threatening complications in labour. Unfortunately, my experience is not unusual, with recent studies showing that medical personnel do not listen to women and especially women of colour enough when they raise concerns.
When I arrived at the hospital, I told the labour and delivery nurse that I was not planning on having an epidural as I had my own way of dealing with pain. She responded, "Brave girl. We will see." I let the nursing staff know that my way of processing pain is not often visible to others, but that I could feel labour progressing.
After about eighteen hours of labour, my midwife asked me how I was feeling. I told her that I was further along than she thought and that I could feel my cervix dilating. She and the labour and delivery nurse exited the room to speak in the hallway, then my midwife left the hospital.
