Birth Stories
Three women share their harrowing stories of navigating the medical system while pregnant.
Amy Courts Koopman was the first one I interviewed. I had put a call out on Twitter for women to talk to me about the medical system and pregnancy. I got a lot of response. Some were about dealing with a system that forces women to want babies - even if they have to go through aggressive treatments to have them. Some were of women who went through that treatment and didn’t get pregnant, but have lasting scars. Then a mutual friend DM’d me with the contact info of Amy Courts Koopman.
Amy is healthy. That’s the best word I can use to describe her. Healthy in all aspects. Body. Soul. Mind. As you will hear, she’s a runner. She ran up until she gave birth. That physical stamina might be the reason she is still around to have talked to me. She was in her home in the Midwest and I was in the studio in Vegas. And I just listened. For over an hour, as this story poured out of her. When she was done, I sat there stunned. But I managed to say, “Can I talk to Paul? Is he around?”
I had known Brenda Zamora from attending school board meetings. She bonded with my then-high school daughter, who accompanied me a few times to see the circus. They are about 10 years apart in age. When I met Brenda’s oldest daughter, Scarlet, for the first time, Brenda prompted her to tell me how many surgeries she had had. She recounted them with the most triumphant smile I’ve ever seen.
Brenda worked for Make It Work Nevada. She brought me in to do a weekly education livestream. So when Erika Washington started talking to me about doing a podcast on Reproductive Justice, I knew it was time to get Brenda’s story.
I interviewed her in the summer, before the November election. I still see Brenda at school board meetings. She is now a Trustee.
Erika connected with the idea of Reproductive Justice partly because of her experiences as an 18- and 23-year-old Black woman on Medicaid navigating the medical system. She talks in this episode about her experiences with her second daughter, Skyylar.
You can listen to this here. Or on your preferred podcast app. If you have been meaning to listen to the whole podcast, I urge you to make it a part of your regular listening. If you are not a regular podcast person, I might suggest you start here.
And, as always…