Stillbirth is one of the most neglected issues in the conversation surrounding maternal health and reproductive justice — a heartbreaking realization that audience members left the Freeman Auditorium with after the screening of the 2024 ProPublica documentary film “Before a Breath” on Oct. 28.

Directed by filmmaker and video journalist Nadia Sussman, the documentary follows three mothers who have experienced stillbirth and are now engaged in different kinds of activism for maternal health and reproductive justice: Debbie Haine Vijayvergiya lobbies for legislative change to prevent stillbirth in Washington D.C., Kanika Harris trains a new generation of Black birth workers and Stephanie Lee seeks answers to what might have led to her first daughter’s stillbirth, while pregnant with her second.

Looking around the auditorium during the screening, more than a few people were wiping away tears. Hearing each woman’s story was both deeply saddening and infuriating. It seemed like they all shared the feeling that there simply isn’t enough awareness and education surrounding stillbirth, which is why they decided to take matters into their own hands.

Seeing how these women found meaning in a terrible tragedy and channeled their grief into calls for action was incredibly empowering and inspiring. The immense strength it must have taken for them to put their hearts on their sleeve, to endure one of the worst pains and yet still find hope for change, is deeply admirable.

At the end of the documentary, a statistic was displayed on the silver screen: “At least 1 in 4 stillbirths in the U.S. are likely preventable.” This data highlighted a massive problem in the healthcare space: how underresearched maternal health is. It also emphasized that stillbirth should be a crucial focus of the reproductive justice movement.

After the documentary ended, panelists Kimberly Novod, founder and executive director of Saul’s Light, a Louisiana-based nonprofit supporting NICU and bereaved families; director Sussman; and Joni Hess, family advocate and reporter at The Times-Picayune and a mom who has experienced stillbirth, took the stage for a Q&A session. Moderator Sophia Rosenblatt, director of programs and partnerships at Saul’s Light, led the conversation before opening it up to questions from the audience.

The showing of the documentary was part of a grant from the Mellon Foundation, awarded to Tulane University professors Clare Daniel, Karissa Haugeberg and Kate Baldwin, to put on a two-year series of events engaging the theme of reproductive justice in the Gulf South through the lens of the humanities and arts. For this event, Daniel and Haugeberg were the main coordinators. 

Part of the grant is centered on different aspects of reproductive justice in conversation with scholars and community advocates. In this mission, Daniel says one of their priorities “has been to engage community partners in New Orleans who are working on these issues. Another has been to center New Orleans in a global conversation.” 

In particular, stillbirth is “an issue that gets little attention in general and is often not recognized as an issue of reproductive justice,” Daniel said. For this event, it made perfect sense to partner with Saul’s Light — a local organization that shines a light on stillbirth, among other aspects of bereavement. 

Speaking about what kind of impact they hope to have, Daniel said “Our hope is that the event shed light on an important issue in our community, while providing students and other audience members with an example of how data and art can combine to effectively communicate the urgency of reproductive justice issues.”

I left the Freeman Auditorium feeling more educated than when I walked in, having learned so much about a topic I didn’t know much about beforehand. At the same time, I also felt incredibly devastated — no one should have to experience a stillbirth. Yet, these are the exact kinds of emotions that inspire awareness and change, which is exactly what Daniel, Haugeberg and Baldwin are striving to invoke — and I would say they are doing an excellent job.