Thematic Analysis of Qualitative Interviews Looking at Black Birthing Patient Perspectives on Police Violence

Police violence is a salient and deeply harmful manifestation of structural racism in the United States and a reproductive justice issue. Following the highly publicized murder of George Floyd by police in 2020 we sought to characterize the ways in which community-level police violence affects the daily lives of recently pregnant Black people. We conducted 12 semi-structured interviews with individuals who delivered at one of two Chicago-area hospitals in 2020-2021. Participants were asked about feelings of trust, safety and personal experiences with policing, and how national incidents of police violence affected their pregnancy. Thematic analysis was conducted using methods outlined by Maguire and Delahunt, 2017. Participants were between 22-42 years of age, 80% of participants were postpartum at the time of the interviews, and 56% had public insurance. Two common themes emerged. Participants reported feeling unsafe for themselves and their families around police, particularly male children. However, they saw the value in law enforcement and did not endorse abolishing the police as a solution to police violence. Second, participants most frequently encountered police during traffic stops. While the majority of individuals described their own interactions with policing primarily through traffic stops as acutely stressful, their anxiety for their male kin being victims of police violence was a commonly expressed chronic stressor. Interpretation of these interviews will be validated via focus group discussions. Further research is needed to understand the relationship between traffic stops and chronic stress for Black individuals' during pregnancy and postpartum.