So Far As A Century’s Reach (United States of America)

By Kirsten Greenidge

The USA is the most expensive country in the world to give birth, yet it has the highest maternal mortality rate of all high income countries. The maternal mortality rate of black women in the USA is nearly 4 times higher than that of white women.

Through a series of diverse voices, multi award-winning playwright Kirsten Greenidge takes us back across 100 years of childbirth in the USA. She asks what progress has been made and how the African American woman’s experience has changed over the last century. Greenidge also questions the payment of medical care in the USA and highlights the problems with over-medicalisation of birth

“I am the steward of this child. I am responsible for this child. And as a black child, he must have every advantage because there are so many advantages he will not have.”