Fiction Contract

Directed by Carolyn Lazard

Fiction Contract documents a childbirth simulation facilitated by The Maternal Mortality Reduction Program (MMRP). Across all five boroughs of New York City, this team trains medical professionals through complex childbirth simulations. NYC H+H selected an all-black team of administrators, midwives, doctors, and nurses for this simulation. It was performed with and by Jayda, a black birthing mannequin who can simulate different complex childbirth scenarios. In 2020, as part of a comprehensive plan to “eliminate disparities in maternal mortality between Black and White women,” the Deblasio administration earmarked funds to incentivize medical mannequin manufacturers to produce mannequins with brown skin. Prior to 2020, almost all medical mannequins were white.