Actress Keshia Knight-Pulliam recently welcomed the birth of her first child, daughter Ella Grace a few weeks ago.
[READ: Keshia Knight Pulliam Didn’t Contact Ed Hartwell About Daughter’s Birth… ]
The first time mom was hospitalized after her c-section birth, but she recently spoke about the experience in an episode of her podcast.
Knight-Pulliam, who is involved in a bitter divorce/child support battle with the presumed father, Ed Hartwell, shared that she was quite offended during her hospital stay when a medical worker assumed she needed the assistance of government welfare programs.
Details below…
According to a recent episode of her Kandidly Keshia podcast, Keshia says she experienced what she felt was racism within the healthcare system when she was offered financial aid during her hospital stay.
While Pulliam praised the doctors who cared for her during the birth of her daughter, she says she was offended when her lactation specialist, a ?little old white lady? assumed she was a mother in need because of her skin color.
Keshia says the specialist handed her a resource pamphlet and only pointed out their Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.
?So I guess she saw this little black girl with the little baby by herself and on the door, I didn?t realize that they?d put like a faux last name and the last name was Brown.?
?So I guess she saw ?Miss Brown? and was like, ?She probably needs some WIC and insurance services.??
FYI: WIC provides federal support for low-income pregnant women and new mothers.
[Sidebar: I guess she felt that the nurse would have treated her differently if she knew she was a ‘Cosby Kid’… but I digress.]
Pulliam says she cut the woman off and informed her she had excellent insurance and wouldn?t need any assistance before thanking her.
It was the woman?s next move that ultimately made Keshia request a new lactation consultant:
“Like, she didn’t want to touch me,” Pulliam said.
“They literally will like, guide your boob, show you how to hold it, put it in the baby’s mouth. This lady was not trying to touch my little brown boobie. Not at all!”
Whatever the case, Keshia feels she was discriminated against because she is Black and that the woman should not have assumed that she needed financial assistance.
On a related note, Keshia is currently demanding the judge in her divorce case to step in due to her baby daddy?s lack of support and recently filed documents stating she and their daughter are in need of immediate financial support from Ed while she takes some time off from her career to care for the child.
Keshia is currently seeking for Hartwell to be ordered to pay for the support and maintenance of their child.