EUCLID, Ohio — As a singer, Erica Kane enjoys the R&B music playing overhead, but she’s not in a club or a music studio.
Kane was nine months pregnant and visiting the medical center for a routine maternity check, which is anything but routine.
African American art adorns the walls, and rooms are named after notable black women.
Village of Healing is a Euclid medical center dedicated to providing health care to Black women by providers who look like Black women.
The center was founded by Dana M. Langford and Tenisha Gaines, two black women who wanted to not only provide medical services but also meet the social and cultural needs of women like them. was founded by.
“They’re like my aunts, cousins and sisters. They’re amazing,” Cain said.
The medical practitioners and staff are all Black women and provide gynecological, obstetric, and mental health care.
Renee McPson is the nurse who takes care of Kane.
“It feels great,” she said. “It feels great to be able to work with my colleagues, to be able to help them, and to be able to engage with my colleagues at the same time.”
She said this environment gives women a sense of security.
“Some people say they can’t say half the things they say in other offices,” McPson said. “This is a safe zone and there is no judgment.”
Cain said the clinic has done a great job, but medical care for women of color needs to improve.
“We have a long way to go. There are some changes and it starts right here in the Healing Village,” she said.
She wants women who look like her to find a place where they feel comfortable, a place where they can find the kind of comfort she found at this clinic.