Reflection – Storytelling      Challenge

My name is Antonia Coelho and I study at the Ankara University, from Brazil. We

have a discipline in the school grade that is based on problem solving, where students

propose a common problem in their day to day profession. As my course is Obstetrics

(Midwifery), and our group was mainly formed by black women, and the indexes of Brazil

(my country) in obstetric violence are bad, we decided to make a booklet to inform these

women on how to proceed in case they were victims of obstetric violence. This booklet

would obtain information such as government figures to report obstetric violence, as well as

how to identify cases of racism in the hospital that they were visiting. The purpose of these

booklets that would be distributed in the Brazilian public health system (SUS) was to

empower black women about their active role in society and how they themselves can be

instrumental in changing racism in the public health system. This action is justified because

we see from data exposed on Brazilian government websites, public data, that the women

who suffer the most obstetric violence are black women.    Selection

I’ve used the storytelling tool, as this is the ability to tell stories using an elaborate plot,

using an engaging narrative. As our group is composed only of black women, when we were

going to deliver the booklets to black women, we invited them to a conversation, about

racism, about life, in an engaging way, so that they felt represented by our history . We used

this tool because it is based on identification, involvement, empathy, and that's all we

needed for our project to work, because for these women to listen to us carefully, understand

the project and then apply it on a daily basis - day of the hospital experience that they were

going to visit (whether pregnant or not), noticed racism (when it was present) and could fight

it, we had to ensure that the story was being delivered well and that they had understood it

completely.      Application

We deliver the booklets to health units (in Brazil, we call them “UBS”), located in the

city of São Paulo. We look for units located in the suburbs (or favelas, communities),

because according to the data we researched (from sources were the places where there

were more black residents, including black women of reproductive age. We went to the

reception of the obstetric ward and waited for black women to appear. Those who did, we

invited them to a conversation about racism x obstetric violence, trying to understand the

how much she knew about it, and involving her in storytelling.       Insight

We were successful in getting the attention of these women, perhaps precisely

because they identified with us, black women. We noticed that most of these women did not

know where to report if they were victims of racism and obstetric violence, and many had

already suffered violence and racism but had not realized it, thought it was normal. However,

some women did not accept the booklets and said they already knew the subject, or were

late for the medical consultation. But in general, we were successful in the goal.      Approach

In a final analysis, I can see some mistakes we made. As our goal was to empower

as many black women as possible about how obstetric violence can be linked by racism, we

should have ensured that the women who said they knew the subject really did, perhaps by

asking them some specific questions, just to make sure they knew. And those who said they

were late, we could have waited for them to finish the consultation so we could talk to her.

Every health system has its problems, racism in Brazil is real, and it is present even

where it should be synonymous with health, love, healthy and loving people. But that is not

the reality. Even though the majority are black in the country, black women still suffer from

their color, and still at a special moment like the birth of a child or a simple gynecological

consultation.

We are happy to have been able to apply storytelling to involve these women, finding

common points in our stories, and bringing them into a world and information, knowledge

and empowerment. When we applied this, we didn't know it was a type of DESIGN

THINKING, but now we see, how design thinking is present in everything we did with these

women.

