It is important to consider women’s health care in Detroit, and to analyze it through class and racial lenses. We have examined how concentrated poverty and race in Detroit affects its residents’ health and care options, as housing segregation in Detroit has forced African-Americans to have restricted access to quality care. Women face specific health care needs, such as prenatal and maternal care, and those needs have been historically underserved in Detroit.

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We can understand this through the history of Nancy Milio’s family planning and prenatal care center, the Moms and Tots Center, that opened up in the Kercheval neighborhood of Detroit in the 1960s. Milio considered the Kercheval neighborhood to be one of the most deprived areas of Detroit at the time, but the social changes occurring in the ‘60s set a stage for reform in women’s health care. At the clinic, Milio provided pre- and postnatal care that was previously unavailable in the area and made it accessible and understandable for the population. For example, in the photo below you can see that there were “plain language” posters at the clinic that advised women: “Keep healthy during your pregnancy… DO take your iron and vitamins.”