Yes, obstetric healthcare is also marked by severe racial inequalities. In Fiction Contract, Carolyn Lazard records a simulated childbirth performed by Jada, a Black mannequin — a staging that is at once perfectly surreal and profoundly necessary
How much can a high-fidelity clinical simulation achieve? What is the value of a silicone birth? What is the purpose of this exercise when the educational component is removed?
In this short film, an obstetric emergency team establishes a fictional contract: an understanding that extends to the viewer and presupposes a suspension of disbelief. By accepting this premise, a one-way mirror lets us peek into a delivery room where Jada gives birth. It could be almost anywhere on Earth, but this scene takes place at Elmhurst Hospital in New York, which serves one of the most ethnically diverse communities in the world.
Jada seems nervous, perhaps because she knows that, as a Black woman, she is potentially subject to a maternal mortality rate significantly higher, perhaps because she is aware that she is the first racialized mannequin in this simulation center. When the illusion fades, we are left wondering whether the protocol was strictly followed, but perhaps some hope for the future remains. (Sara da Cruz)
