- Joshua Jackson's wife, the actress Jodie Turner-Smith, gave birth to their daughter at home last April.
- Jackson, who starred in Dawson's Creek, said they had a home birth because US hospitals have a poor track record of treating
Black women . - In the US, Black women are two and a half times more likely to die in
pregnancy than white women.
Actor Joshua Jackson said his wife, the actress Jodie Turner-Smith, gave birth to their daughter at home because the US medical system has a poor track record when it comes to treating Black women.
Turner-Smith gave birth in April 2020, when hospitals were attempting to stop the spread of COVID-19 by banning visitors - even partners - forcing women to give birth alone.
But Jackson said their decision was driven more by fears of discrimination.
"The American medical system has a horrendous track record with Black women," Jackson told Esquire.
In the US, Black women are two and a half times more likely more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or immediately postpartum compared to white women. Doctors have spoken to Insider about witnessing women of color face discrimination during labor.
Jackson, best known for his role on Dawson's Creek, met Turner-Smith at a party in 2018. Last week, he told Insider's Libby Torres that they then had a "three-night stand," and they've been together ever since.
When it came to having their first child, Jackson told Esquire, racial discrimination in the US medical system was top of their minds.
"She wanted to be in a place where she was as comfortable as possible, understandably. And I wanted her to be in a place where she felt like she was being heard at every step along the way, rather than having to go through that filter of being a Black woman interfacing with the American medical system," Jackson said.
The home birth, he said, was "a magical experience-we don't talk enough about the positives."