For Spanish-speaking Latinas, language gaps — real or perceived — tied to discrimination during labor
The research question that pursued Jessica Valdez, an OB-GYN resident physician at the University of California, San Francisco, stemmed from her mother’s womb: How important is it to a birthing woman’s experience to be seen by health care providers who share her primary language?
Valdez’s mother was 17 when she immigrated to California from Mexico in the 1970s. She didn’t speak English “and had no idea what normal labor and delivery is supposed to look like because she was practically alone here,” Valdez explained.
