Imagine writhing violently in a wheelchair, your cervix separating in agony as your bottom burns with the coming of a child, a new baby who deserves to enter the world surrounded by comfort and care. Instead, a nurse callously asks questions as you use all your strength to flip over and prepare to birth a child in the waiting room of a hospital.

Although this sounds like the makings of a horror story, it was the subject of a recent viral TikTok video showcasing a Southern Black woman’s terrible experience of childbirth. The lack of care and concern is frightening, yet it is also familiar to Black, Brown, and Indigenous women, many of whom would describe their hospital births as more traumatic than joyous.

This TikTok video, along with public figures like Serena Williams talking about their own negative experiences, has brought conversations around the inequitable maternal care women of color face. Now, a fire’s been sparked in these women, who are returning to ancestral practices and taking perinatal care back into their own hands.