Alana Dillette’s “Empowered Beginnings” advocates for Black maternal health and maternity care for mothers and birthgivers

For Alana Dillette, an associate professor in the Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at San Diego State University, getting out into the community and “seeing what’s really happening on the ground in San Diego” was at the core of her report “Empowered Beginnings,” which studies Black maternal health in San Diego and recommends policy action to improve it.

The Black community makes up less than 6% of San Diego’s population, a minority whose stories and voices are amplified through Dillette’s report. Divergent from her usual hospitality and tourism management research, the study deals with important topics of equality and equity.

“Even though my experience was different than the crux of the project, I was just looking for something to take me out of my comfort zone, something that I personally identified with as well, and that’s really what inspired me to pursue the work,” Dillette said.

The study identifies maternal health issues such as inadequate paid leave, lactation and breastfeeding barriers, knowledge gaps about access to maternity leave, high-risk pregnancies, and the exclusion of gig and self-employed workers.

It also examines what policy action could improve these issues, including mandating six to 12 months of fully paid, job-protected leave, requiring paid pumping breaks, funding culturally competent “Maternity Rights Advocacy Hubs,” and creating dedicated leave programs for medical complications, among others.

The report points out that for Black workers, who often face intersecting racial and gender discrimination in the workplace, equitable policies are essential for safe pregnancies and recovery stages, as well as positive outcomes in the long term for parents and infants.

“Because a lot of women – especially Black mothers – have to work to survive, the workplace is a really big part of your pregnancy and maternity leave experience,” Dillette said.

As a researcher with a strong background in both qualitative and quantitative research and a Black mother herself, the topic of the study strongly resonated with Dillette. 

As part of the qualitative research for the study, Dillette conducted interviews with 12 focus groups about their experiences with maternity care access.

“Across those groups I got to talk to 70 different Black mothers and birthgivers and hear their stories, and I would say that that has been the most meaningful and the most enjoyable part of the work,” Dillette said.

“Sometimes when we see a lot of data, we tend to sort of disassociate from the data,” Dillette said. “Actually sitting down for hours all together hearing the stories of each individual Black mother and birth giver really helped me to understand the story and bring it to life.”

Dillette reflected on how, even though the project stretched her to learn about a different field and see how her experience intersected with it, she was grateful for the ability to go outside her usual area of study.

“It was a rollercoaster of a ride, learning all that I did, but I'm really glad that I decided to go forward,” Dillette said.

Dillette also said the process of working on the report helped her to think about workers’ rights within the hospitality and tourism industry as a whole.

According to Dillette, the industry is prone to issues when it comes to workers’ rights, but the project helped her expand her viewpoint and look at more areas for which she could research solutions.

Above all, Dillette hopes to create a world where pregnant people know their rights as navigating policy for pregnancy leave can often be convoluted and hard to access. She hopes “Empowered Beginnings” will be an example for the rest of California and eventually the rest of the U.S. to increase the care that is given to all mothers and birthgivers.

Read the full Empowered Beginnings report.