To Live or Die: Black Maternal Death
I am a black woman and if I became pregnant go into labor to give birth I would have a higher percentage of not making it out alive. I want to have a baby 👶🏾 but will my baby be motherless or die along with me?
The CDC says that black mothers in the US die at 3-4x the rate of white mothers, making it one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health. A black woman is 22% more likely to die from heart disease than a white woman and 71% more likely to die from cervical cancer, but 243% more likely to die from pregnancy/childbirth-related causes. Black women are 243% more likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth related causes than white women.
Black women face significantly higher maternal mortality risk Maternal deaths per 100,000 live births (2011-2013) 44 deaths per 100,000 live births Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR
I’m 39 years old healthy with no chronic conditions and I have yet to give birth for the first time. I want to be a mother but the anxiety of giving birth, then on top of that anxiety knowing that my race die more from complications make me think twice about having children. Will I have a racist doctor or nurse that will ignore my symptoms and pain. Will their prejudices and biases because I am black. Will the doctor or nurse think I am strong and my pain is not bad and my body is slowly dying on the inside will they confuse my agony which will make me have days, hours or even minutes before I collapse and die because the medical professionals that are educated and trained to treat me don’t, from their preconceived notions or flat out negligence the medical profession continues to be dominated by white doctors and nurses that is why representation matters it is so important to have have representation in all spaces and industries but especially in the medical industry.
Some factors to consider in black maternal health
Access to Care -Maybe you don’t have insurance or don’t have a hospital or clinic near you.
Site of Care- The hospital near you is trash, killer county hospitals or rumors of going to that hospital and you may not come out.
Morbidity you may have diabetes or high blood pressure and you are not taking those meds are getting treated and now you are pregnant and you have a chronic condition that may increase your fate of maternal death.
Medical Racism -The definition of Medical Racism-is prejudice and discrimination in medicine and the medical/healthcare system based upon perceived race.
Our country is in a state of unrest because of the recent police killings of George Floyd, Dion Johnson, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmad Aubrey but wait instead of being killed by police we are being killed by doctors and nurses.
Say her Name:
Sha-asia Washington 26 years old- Died from complications of C-Section.
Nicole Thea 24 years old-Died suffering a massive heart attack while pregnant.
Shalon Irving 36 years old- Died from complications of high blood pressure after giving birth 3 weeks later.
Kira Dixon Johnson 39 years old-Died of complications of a C-Section.
I have highlighted 4 black women that have made headlines over the years but Sha-asia Washington and Nicole Thea are the most recent for black maternal deaths in 2020, but there have been hundreds of thousands of black maternal deaths.
Lawdddd 😩 how long do we have to continue to fight for our lives?
Being pregnant 🤰🏾 is a medical condition even though it is a temporary condition pregnancy can exacerbate conditions especially if you already have chronic conditions like hypertension or diabetes and even if you don’t have a chronic condition pregnancy can bring on other conditions like gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, high blood pressure etc etc the same physical conditions a white woman 👩 has doing childbirth is the same physical conditions a black woman 👩🏾will have during pregnancy, but black women are dying at a higher rate compared to white women is it negligence, bias or racism?
Tennis star Serena Williams shared her experience with the world after she gave birth to her daughter Olympia. According to an interview she did with CNN Williams said, the pregnancy had gone smoothly before she encountered problems: “First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense coughing I endured as a result of the embolism. I returned to surgery, where the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen. And then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots from traveling to my lungs.”
NOW, just imagine a regular black woman NOT a world famous athlete having these same symptoms but not given the proper care. If the scenario as Serena described in her experience happened to me I would probably be dead right now. The attentiveness and proper care would of not been the same and that is the reason 234% of black women die during or after giving birth. Serena Williams almost died giving birth but because of who she is, and the excellent care she was given she was able to go home with her healthy daughter.
That was not Sha-Asia Washington’s story
Sha-asia Washington was a 26 year old healthy black woman, she went to Woodhull hospital in NYC with high blood pressure that went left untreated for two days - high blood pressure (preeclampsia) is extremely dangerous and she should of been treated immediately. She died during C-section delivery. This was preventable. She should be here with her partner Juwan Lopez, and her baby girl Khloe. This is another potent example of the system functioning the way it was designed - to fail us. Black women simply want to bring life into the world and experience the joys of motherhood but do to access to care, site of care, morbidities and medical racism it is costing us our lives. It is absolutely exhausting and upsetting to know that a little more oversight, care or effort and Sha-Asia would be alive and I wouldn’t have to say her name and hashtag #RIP
HERE ARE SOME ACTION STEPS YOU CAN TAKE TODAY!
If you are pregnant research the hospital or birthing center you plan to give birth at. See what their C-Section percentages are if they are not listed ask, or google your state health department stats on maternal deaths. (Side note C-Sections cost more than vaginal births so the hospital can bill your insurance more for C-Sections) so keep that in mind when all of a sudden the doctor or nurse suggest a C-Section. In some instances a C-section is necessary but not always.
Support midwifery, doula’s, and advocacy-based organizations run by Black people and people of color that are serving their communities.
https://www.birthcenterequityfund.org/poc-led-birth-centers
https://www.evidencebasedbirth.com
In closing we have to take control of our lives, we can say we are in agony and pain and some medical professionals won’t believe us until we are dead, and then it is too late. This runs deep for me because my great grandmother died of childbirth my mother’s father was a twin and his mother and twin brother died at birth, then on my father’s side my great grandmother died from giving birth, now mind you this was in the 1920’s, 30’s but still black maternal death is a part of my family history. And I want to break the generational curse of black maternal death across the world. Welcoming a new life into the world is a miracle gifted by God. I’m not a mother yet I am a proud auntie currently but I desire to be a mother one day and I refuse to let access to care, site of care, or medical racism deny me of my life or my child’s life. I praise the Lord I have no chronic conditions or morbidity factors to consider but even healthy black women like myself have died giving birth as well, and you can have all the things access to care, the best health insurance, and hospital and still die from giving birth now imagine that. You check all the boxes and still have complications or die, that is the story of Yandelea Neely I wanted to leave you with, a mother of one and a lawyer in Atlanta, shares how racism nearly killed her when she went into labor with her son and had postpartum health complications. Please click on the link to read Yandelea’s story
Thanks for reading!
XOXO
BGUC