Being Black and pregnant in the Deep South can be a dangerous combination

O’laysha Davis was a few weeks shy of her due date when in mid-August she decided it was time to switch doctors. Davis had planned to give birth at a small community hospital about 20 minutes from her home in North Charleston, S.C.

But that changed when her medical team started repeatedly calling her cellphone and pressuring her to come to the hospital and deliver the baby. Davis said she’d told her doctor on more than one occasion that she was opposed to inducing labor early.

Eventually, she reached her wits’ end.

“It was ridiculous,” said Davis, 33.