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In recent years, pediatricians in the US have investigated the links between fetal health and black mothers’ nutritional choices with a view to promoting future healthy life habits for their children. This new research, which looks at the epigenetic transmission of nutritional deficiencies or excesses, has political implications: it combines a medical discourse on black motherhood with moral judgements. The behaviors of mothers are scrutinized in relation to the impact on future health prospects of their offspring. These medical discourses on healthy and unhealthy eating habits echo the negative stereotypes of the “welfare queen” that has permeated the US society since the 1970s. Consequently, this article will survey the way these researchers discuss the notion of maternal responsibility in their work on African American cohorts. The article will also historicize the development of this new medical discourse on race, individual responsibility, and motherhood within the context of a long history of social control targeting racialized women in the US via an intersectional perspective relying on variables such as race, gender, and social class.