Jodie Turner-Smith Reflects On Concerns Of Passing 'Generational Trauma' To Her Newborn Via Breastfeeding
Back in April, Jodie Turner-Smith welcomed a healthy baby girl with husband Joshua Jackson. Shortly after welcoming her first-born, the new mother penned the reasons why systemic racism made her choose an at-home birth instead of a traditional hospital process, in British Vogue Magazine.
“We had already decided on a home birth because of concerns about negative birth outcomes for Black women in America,” Jodie expressed in her open letter back in August. “According to the [CDC], the risk of pregnancy-related deaths is more than three times greater for Black women than for white women, pointing, it seems to me, to systemic racism.”
In the latest issue of Porter, the Queen and Slim actress further explains why she won’t let racism, generational trauma, fear, sadness, and anxiety infect her daughter’s upbringing.
“We decided to live in West Hollywood for the birth [to be closer to a hospital in case of an emergency], so I was hearing the sirens and the marches,” Turner-Smith reflected. “I could hear all the unrest outside the door, and it actually took me a while before I could watch the video of George Floyd because I was nursing my daughter and you think about the generational trauma that we already carry and deal with and pass on. I was trying really hard not to pass on that fear, sadness, and anxiety through my breast to my child. I had to shut a lot of it down and just stay insular and inside my family for a bit.”
The 34-year-old star continued, “You just want to create a better life – not that I had a bad life by any means – but the heartbreaks I had in my own life, ideally I want to save my daughter from having them.”
On a happier note, Jodie celebrated the immense support she received from her mother, husband, midwife, doula, and obstetrician during her four-day, at-home labor. “Right after I gave birth, my husband washed her, and the midwife and doula cleaned everything up. Then me, my husband, and my daughter, we just slept for a good 12 hours. I needed that. We needed that.”
To read more about Jodie’s experience as a new mother, click here.
