When Mimi Evans found out she was pregnant for a third time 10 years ago, one of her first thoughts was: "Something has got to change."
"I thought: 'I'm not going to have my baby here in Texas in a medical center anymore," Evans, now 36, tells TODAY.com. "I'm tired of it."
She ended up driving 1,300 miles in an RV to another state to give birth.
“I was given so much choice, so much freedom and it was just such a much more pleasant experience,” she says. “I definitely felt like I made the right decision.”
Evans says she was "very young" when she gave birth to her first two children, and wasn't knowledgable about her birthing options.
"I was very naive and I just kind of went in to the hospital because I thought that's what everyone did," she adds.
Both times Evans gave birth in a hospital setting, she says she felt rushed, neglected, "on display" and ignored.
"Thank goodness I did not have to do a C-section, but I do feel like I was given things that I did not necessarily want — like a shot of Pitocin," she says. "I didn't get a lot of choice in how I wanted my experience to be, and then immediately after I gave birth I was just cleaned up and sent off to a room to manage the whole postpartum period alone."
Black women living in the U.S. are two to three times likely to die as a result of pregnancy- or birth-related complications than white women, according to government data. They're also more likely to give birth via a C-section, according to the most recent data from the March of Dimes.
Texas and Virginia have similar maternal mortality rates, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control. But for Evans, it was important to give birth in a hospital that aligned with what she wanted in childbirth: most importantly, her health and safety.
She purchased a 32-foot RV, registered the vehicle in Virginia and drove 1,300 miles to an RV park near the hospital.
'It was the kind of sacrifice I had to make'
For two months, Evans lived in the RV with her former partner and two children so she could give birth inside a Virginia hospital.
"It was very small — definitely cramped quarters — but my kids and I were very close knit family and so it wasn't so bad," she says. "It was something that I was willing to put up with just to ensure that I could have a more pleasant birth experience."
To afford the RV, travel and two-month stay, Evans said her family had to "cut certain luxuries," like cable television.
"Being in the RV requires you to miss out on certain things, like preparing a nursery," she adds. "The baby had a tiny little bassinet -- no decorations or decor. I missed out on having a baby shower, because we just did not have the space to accommodate the things people typically bring to a baby shower. We didn't have a family gathering."
Evans heard from family members who didn't understand why Evans would risk going into labor and not making it to the hospital.
"I thought: 'If my baby happens to come while we're in the RV, and I don't make it to the hospital, I'm OK with that," she adds. "To ensure the safety, health and mental health, first and foremost of myself and my baby, it was the kind of sacrifice I had to make."
'It was just such a much more pleasant experience'
Evans says she does not regret her decision.
"It was just such a much more pleasant experience," she says. "And because of that, my baby came when he felt like wanted to — at four o'clock in the morning. I was never rushed. I felt so great and had so much energy after I gave birth to him. I spent a little more time in Virginia, to recover, then I came back to Texas."
Evans' vastly different birthing experiences inspired her to educate other pregnant people about their options. Now, she works as a doula and birth educator.
In 2022, Evans gave birth to a healthy baby girl at home.
"I was still not willing to give birth at a hospital in Texas," she adds. "I had a student midwife and I had a doula. It was a very, very great experience."
While Evans made the choice to cross state lines to give birth 10 years ago, as a doula and birth educator she is afraid that more and more pregnant people — Black women especially — will be forced to travel in order to give birth safely or receive quality prenatal care.
The Unites States has the worst maternal mortality rate of any developed nation, and some women's health advocates and researchers believe more restrictive abortion laws enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade will make the maternal mortality crisis worse.
"I wish that I could say 'everything is getting better,' but it's very scary," Evans says. "Roe v Wade really opened my eyes — my goodness, we could possibly be going backwards. That is very scary to me.
"That is one of the reasons why I'm in this line of (birth) work," she adds. "To ensure that my community does know that there are options out there."
