In December of 2021, during my first labor experience, the midwife at GraceFull birthing center in Silverlake (Los Angeles), CA lied to me & violated my body - and my rights in doing so - in reality, assaulting me & causing what I now understand to be a traumatic birth or obstetric violence, recognized by the UN as a form of gendered violence. It was a midwife I had met only once prior who was a last minute substitute, whose licensing I still have no proof of. (I do believe that she is licensed but received no information on her background prior to or since, which is in fact their legal responsibility as her employer & as my paid-for birthing facility.) I am not a vindictive person but I believe in morals, equity & justice and BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS SUCH AS CONSENT. I have fought for these ideals for others my whole life. Now it is time to fight for myself. And, as I've found out while researching this facility further, also to fight on behalf of all the other traumatized families - those from the recent past and preventing harm to their future clients.

I wrote a letter detailing my experience, expressing the harm done, both the physical & emotional trauma, to the White owner of the company. I asked for financial restitution (only what I had paid them, nothing for damages) & a letter of apology, that she & her employees would do better for future families. She wrote back & apologized for the "miscommunication", refusing to admit that I was lied to, reiterated how personalized their care is and maintained that all I am due is a sit down with her, the midwife who violated me and a neutral party so that "we can understand each other better". She denied any discrimination, saying that my allegation about "potential" discrimination was unfounded & inaccurate - despite the fact that both midwives at my birth were White and dismissed both myself & my doula's expressions about my violation when we spoke up during the labor. Both of us are Latinx so regardless of any purposeful discrimination, the scenario in itself makes for the potential of it, especially if she is not offering any implicit bias training to her staff (she made no mention of requiring such training). Here is a Kaiser Family Foundation article that expands on how "maternal and infant health disparities are symptoms of broader underlying social and economic inequities that are rooted in racism and discrimination" - this article is dated November 1, 2022, it’s one of thousands of articles on the topic & this issue is current. She expressed "regret that [they] didn't live up to [my] expectations" but refused to accept accountability for not only what took place but that the services I paid for - respect, honesty, trust, communication, not to mention in her business' own words: "radical transparency", the "magical journey of birthing" and the "powerful, transformative" nature of birth, everything I invested in a birthing center birth for - were completely failed to be upheld on their part. My expectations were based on their empty promises - you will find these promises all over their website - https://gracefull.com/. I also suffered physical damages from a birthing position I was kept in for hours and she denied that being possible, as "no other patients have reported problems to [them] as a result of [the silks'] use", meaning that as the first to report such, I have no right to receive restitution for the damages, for which I am still wearing a brace, seeing a nerve specialist for steroid shots and receiving physical therapy. Not to mention that for the first 3 months of my son's life, I could not hold him without help & supervision for his own safety.

My letter to her was her opportunity to make good on their promises, acknowledge where they had failed me and make amends. She wrote hollow apologies, negated my experience and ignored several of my complaints, despite stating that they "take complaints such as yours seriously and have initiated an investigation" - it seemed her investigation was complete as of the writing of her letter to me.

If we do not speak up, as a community on behalf of pregnant people, as women with rights over our own bodies, as humankind who want to see discrimination come to an end, this woman & her company will continue to mistreat their paying clients. Her Yelp page alone is a long list of unhappy clients (past the happy clients, which there are of course). This is not to negate those happy clients, bless them & their positive experiences, but rather to instill a societal agreement that when we do wrong, we make it right - we don't seek to hide under repetitious claims our business pretends to uphold but rather take responsibility for our errors - especially those that cause harm & damages, especially to our BIPOC community.

NOW is the time to sign this. NOW is the time to ask for reparations - not her letter denying my experience but an actual letter of amends. NOW is the time to seek a financial refund for my out of pocket expenses, the full amount, as the services rendered me were not as promised. In 2 weeks time, one year will have passed since my labor there and I deserve the fresh start, the knowledge that my voice matters & has been heard and the money I spent on a natural birth that should have been respectful, collaborative, full of joint decision-making and informed consent refunded to me at the very least. As the local community, we deserve to know that this owner & her business consider themselves under watch and that we will come together to hold them accountable and that they MUST do better for their future clients - that this was UNACCEPTABLE.

Our son deserved a loving, respectful, “GRACEFUL” welcome to this world, which was my entire aim in birthing outside of a hospital. My family deserved honesty, consideration and to be heard & cared for when this was not the case. We appreciate your support & are eager to move forward from this and continue to set an example for our son as he grows up - that we stand up for ourselves & others, that we deserve equitable care and that we are obligated to be the voice of justice, no matter how much it costs us to speak up.

Please sign & send to everyone you know, who cares about women & all pregnant people, who cares about respect for our bodies & our autonomy, who cares about spending money in places that earn our business, who cares that the folx in the most intimate industry possible DO BETTER. Thank you from the bottom of my heart - for reading this far and for taking the minute to sign.

Below is a Yelp review by another victim of GraceFull's negligence & then their retraumatizing harm caused by the owner's initial caring turned apathetic, dismissive response & paying them to delete their review via her lawyer. I am not the first and I won't be the last birthing person harmed if we don't prove to GraceFull how much support we show one another in situations like mine and this Yelp reviewer's. The owner will only respond to threats to her reputation and her bottom line (like the publicity of this petition). Please ask 5 friends to sign too. Thank you again for making birthing spaces safe spaces as they always should be.