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Using peer-reviewed articles, this activity informs students of experiences female-identifying patients encounter in health-care contexts. The activity draws the students' attention to gendered and racial prejudices and how those could impact patients' relationship with practitioners. Courses: Suitable for undergraduate courses, such as Gender and Women's Studies, Interpersonal Communication, Medical Sociology, Communication Research Methods, Health Communication, Qualitative Research Methods, Race and Ethnicity, and Sociology of Gender. Objectives: After completing this unit activity, students will learn how to (1) analyze the impact of race and gender on patients, (2) advocate for female-identifying patients, (3) help create more welcoming and equitable interactions in health care, and (4) advocate for themselves within the health-care context.

Doulas, or birth coaches, are said to be "changing the world, one birth at a time." Black doulas have been suggested to mitigate against lack of representation in obstetric care, limited identity acknowledgement and accommodation, and obstetric racism. However, scientific inquiry into the specific communication strategies and messages used by Black doulas to advocate for clients was non-existent in extant literature. Guided by the Agency-Identity Model, we analyzed 20 diary-interviews of nine Black doulas who recently served Black clients. Specifically, we explored Black doulas' communication strategies and whether these strategies had an impact on client agency. We found that Black doulas prepare their clients for patient-provider interactions, including conversations about certain medical treatments and procedures and the risks for Black women and birthing people, the importance of informed consent, how to be heard, and how to resist neglect or abuse. We found that, in turn, most Black clients were able to enact agentic responses. We describe the specific doula messages, and contextualize our findings, considering how these collective interpersonal communication strategies of Black doulas, and their clients' agentic transformations, may index a sociopolitical movement to reframe the experience of childbirth in America. • Black doulas acknowledge and respond to Black client's identity. • Black doulas use communication strategies to increase collective agency. • Black doulas encourage clients to use specific verbal messages to healthcare providers. • Most Black clients or their birth companions were able to demonstrate agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]