The Amsterdam News recently interviewed Samantha Banerjee, executive director of PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, which has a mission of reducing the incidence of preventable stillbirth in the United States, after the organization helped support a virtual press conference with the Mobilize Maternal Health Coalition on February. 4, 2025, to announce the “Empowering Reproductive Justice Campaign.” The campaign will address maternal healthcare issues in New York, with a focus on legislative measures such as the Paid Leave after Stillbirth, to support equitable healthcare for all.
The event included reproductive justice organizations, public officials,and advocates. Invited guests included Jumaane Williams, public advocate for New York City; Vanesa Gibson, Bronx borough president, Samantha; Banerjee; and other experts.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AmNews: Please tell our readers about how you got involved with this work and in this community?
Samantha Bannerjee (SB): I am a stillbirth mom. My daughter Alana was born still in 2013, two days before her due date, after [I had] a totally normal and healthy pregnancy. [We] walked into the hospital thinking we would be bringing home our baby girl, the first grandchild on both sides of our family. I was told throughout the entire pregnancy that it was textbook and low risk and all the good things, only to be told that she no longer had a heartbeat, so we were completely blindsided.
I was not an uninformed pregnant person, but I never even heard the word stillbirth outside of a Victorian context, had no idea it was happening to anyone in this day and age, let alone that it could happen to me. That was how I found myself here in this community.
I am now the executive director of Push for Empowered Pregnancy. We are a New York-based
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national 501c3 public charity dedicated to ending preventable stillbirth. Push was started in 2021 by parents like me across the U.S. who experienced potentially preventable stillbirths. We said we are coming together and we are going to take big, bold action on a national scale to make sure that other parents know this is happening and how to lower the risk of it happening to them, and to make sure more importantly that our public health system acknowledges this crisis,which is claiming the lives of 65 children every single day in this country.
AmNews: Please describe the “Empowering Reproductive Justice Campaign” virtual press conference on Feb. 4, 2025.
SB: This event was to announce the Empowering Reproductive Justice Campaign through the Mobilized Maternal Health Coalition (MMHC). We had several advocates from all different aspects of maternal health explain the state of maternal health, maternal mortality, and stillbirth in New York State and why it’s necessary for this coalition to exist. We had a variety of speakers talk about the different bills and issues that this coalition is going to be advocating for together. We had advocates and families directly from the communities come on to share their personal experiences.
AmNews: What thoughts would you like to leave with our readers?
SB: Black moms are twice as likely to experience a stillbirth due to systemic racism, implicit bias, structural factors, [similar to what] we see with maternal mortality. Both of these issues are caused by a lot of the same root causes, which means that the prevention methods are also very much aligned. Most of that is listening to parents respecting us when we report that there’s something wrong with our pregnancies, taking it seriously, and generally equipping people with the information they need to advocate for themselves.
We work closely with a lot of the leading Black maternal health organizations. Here in New York, we [work with] Speak! Move! Change! Coalition, which is run by the Arya Foundation; Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project and the Tatia Oden French Memorial Foundation; and individuals from the communities like doulas, birth workers, researchers, and doctors — people coming together to say we need improved pregnancy outcomes for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people who are at the highest risk.