Kyla Pratt Recalls Dealing With Dismissive Health Care Provider

Recently, Kyla Pratt opened up about her struggle with her previous healthcare provider during her second pregnancy. Kyla said, “I remember for my second pregnancy, I went into labor early. Being in the hospital, I told the nurse there I was having contractions; she looked at the machine and said, ‘No, you weren’t,’ and I said, ‘Yes, I am. I’ve done this before; go get my doctor.’” She continued, “Luckily, standing up for myself in that moment, my daughter is here now. She went to get my doctor; my doctor said, ‘You’re 6-centimeters dilated, and we have to do an emergency C-section.’ But because I was so small, it wasn’t showing up on the machine. In that moment, I didn’t really recognize when people weren’t listening to me because I was young, because I am Black, and because I’m a woman.” She added, “Even I was dismissed before that in my life, I don’t really recognize stuff, I just let stuff go away. But when it came to the safety of my child, I was easily like ‘Ma’am, keep your looks and keep your whatever you need to yourself, I got this.’”

Have you ever had a dismissive experience with a healthcare provider? What happened?