Day 7: Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. Black women are also less likely to receive proper medical care before and after pregnancy compared to white women. We know the history of black women getting hysterectomies without their consent by white doctors in attempt to stop black women from having more children. Black women are also more likely to have cervical cancer and/or fibroids than white women. However, in 1943 Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens received her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine she was the only African American women in a class of 137 students and she was the first African American to become a board-certified OB-GYN in Philadelphia in 1945. Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens primary focus was on black women health.She helped people in poor black and brown neighborhoods. She gave out free information on sexual health including STDs, and getting an annual pap smear to check for cervical cancer and taught young teens about pregnancy and how to prevent it. She even helped deliver a baby in a dark apartment because the women could not afford to have electricity. In 1948, she became director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mercy Douglass Hospital which at the time was very rare for a woman let alone a black woman to do. Her work focused on the health and well being of young black teens and women today she has her own center called The Helen O. Dickens Center for Women in Philadelphia. In an earlier post, I mentioned the speculum was a tool created from the broken bodies of enslaved black women however, Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens used that same tool to save black women and educate them on their bodies and their sexual health and for that, we thank you.