Black Women Are Dying During Childbirth And No One Seems To Care

After a grueling six-day hospital stay while seven months pregnant, I was forced to grapple with how scary is to be a Black pregnant woman.

No, it’s not Black Maternal Health Week, but earlier this month, I was reminded of the grim statistics that Black women face when it comes to maternal mortality and how frightening it can be for pregnant Black women. At seven months pregnant, I was admitted to the hospital for over a week after experiencing high blood pressure, which may have triggered several small decelerations in our unborn daughter’s heart rate. Thankfully, after six days of close observation in the hospital, both my blood pressure and our daughter’s heart rate were stable enough for me to return home. But sadly, many Black women do not share that same fate, and often it is the result of racism, not race.

Last Wednesday, a monthly prenatal visit turned into a six-day, anxiety-producing, grueling, and uncomfortable stay at the hospital. My OBGYN immediately directed me to labor and delivery for further observation after two concerning high blood pressure readings and detecting protein in my urine, both of which are typical symptoms associated with pre-eclampsia. This sometimes fatal condition can occur during pregnancy and disproportionately affects Black women. Over the six days that I was in the…