Deyanira Sencion Ibarra

In an era where racialized maternal mortality and medical mistrust are widely acknowledged as systemic crises, birthworker collectives have gained renewed purchase as sites of alternative care. These collectives, particularly those led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, operate within landscapes shaped by historical and ongoing reproductive violence. This dissertation project asks if birthworker collectives in the US-Mexico borderlands region of Arizona might function as embodied infrastructure against the logics of structural racism embedded in U.S. reproductive healthcare and birthing support. In Arizona, where two-thirds of the state qualifies as medically-underserved areas and where maternal mortality rates exceed the national average, I ask what world-building possibilities emerge when birthworkers create networks of care beyond clinical outcomes or individualized advocacy against obstetric racism? By focusing on the daily practices of birthworkers in collectives as they navigate institutional constraints, attend to client needs, and pursue broader reproductive justice aims, this project makes visible a network of care that is necessary but overlooked in the face of uneven health infrastructure.