photo by steed media service

In a nation that is notoriously and hypocritically puritanical, women have never been comfortable talking about — nor coming to grips with — their bodies and their all-important reproductive functions. Toni Bond Leonard says this has led generations of women, particularly African Americans, to repeatedly make a host of needless and tragic errors. Leonard is the president and CEO of African American Women Evolving, and is working on a multipronged approach to educate and counsel women on everything related to their bodies, including safe sex, menstrual cycles, personal hygiene, contraceptives and childbirth.

“What we’re trying to get across to black women is that our reproductive health is the essence of who we are as women,” says Leonard. “And for our younger girls, we need to have conversations [with] them about their bodies, so that as they grow up and go through puberty and start experiencing different bodily changes, they understand really what’s going on.”

Leonard and her staff not only educate, they dispel myths and fallacies. For example, the concept of douching for cleanliness may be misunderstood. “We have the Healthy Vagina Campaign, which is a study about black women’s reproductive health,” says Leonard, who also distributes safe-sex kits, literature and a host of other valuable items. “What we found was that black women douche more than any other ethnic population in this country. That’s problematic because there are numerous studies that show the correlation between douching, reproductive tract infections, low birth rate and pre-term delivery.”

Once women get educated, Leonard says, they will make better decisions — but we first must educate. –terry shropshire.

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