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Last month, during the week of April 11th-17th, many acknowledged Black Maternal Health Week, which was founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance. Black Maternal Health Week was created to amplify the voices of Black mothers and focus on the values and traditions of the reproductive and birth justice movements. This year, 2019, was the second year that the Alliance recognized Black Maternal Health Week; now is the perfect time to discuss this topic and bring additional awareness to the cause. 

Last year, I remember reading the Vogue article where Serena Williams spoke about the complications that arose after she gave birth to her daughter.  An excerpt from the article written by Rob Haskell reads: 

The next day, while recovering in the hospital, Serena suddenly felt short of breath. Because of her history of blood clots, and because she was off her daily anticoagulant regimen due to the recent surgery, she immediately assumed she was having another pulmonary embolism. (Serena lives in fear of blood clots.) She walked out of the hospital room so her mother wouldn’t worry and told the nearest nurse, between gasps, that she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin (a blood thinner) right away. The nurse thought her pain medicine might be making her confused. But Serena insisted, and soon enough a doctor was performing an ultrasound of her legs. ‘I was like, a Doppler? I told you, I need a CT scan and a heparin drip,’ she remembers telling the team. The ultrasound revealed nothing, so they sent her for the CT, and sure enough, several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. Minutes later she was on the drip. ‘I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!’” 

So, what’s the problem with Serena’s narrative and so many others like hers?  According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Black women in America are four times more likely than white women to die during childbirth or shortly after. This number rises to a staggering 12 times in New York. There are a number of factors that have been identified to explain this statistic, such as socioeconomic status, educational level, access to healthcare, and other circumstances or stressors that a mother may be dealing with. However, even after these confounding variables are accounted for, Black women still fare far worse than their white counterparts, and it all boils down to racism.   

Black women in America are four times more likely than white women to die during childbirth or shortly after. Click To Tweet

In honor of this year’s International Women’s Day, Fusion TV released a documentary, Death by Delivery, which explored Black women’s mortality. This documentary showcased the stories of several Black women and their pregnancy and birth stories. The overarching theme throughout each story is the systemic racism that affected their care. All of these women felt as if they or their loved ones weren’t taken seriously during their pregnancies and deliveries, and that they were not shown the same compassion and care that a white woman would receive. Many healthcare professionals seem to dismiss the concerns of Black women when it comes to their healthcare. There is no acknowledgement of what a Black woman might feel or know about her own body.   

Many healthcare professionals seem to dismiss the concerns of Black women when it comes to their healthcare. There is no acknowledgement of what a Black woman might feel or know about her own body. Click To Tweet

As evidenced in these stories, and by Serena’s experience, it doesn’t seem to matter if a Black woman advocates for herself, which is why the experiences of Black women are important to acknowledge and highlight. It is absolutely necessary to ensure that organizations like the Black Mamas Matter Alliance continue to bring awareness to this issue and that the voices of Black women are heard and taken seriously—because Black women’s lives and the lives of their babies do matter.