Black Maternal Mortality: The Background
It was a 2016 article published in the Green Journal entitled “Recent Increases in the U.S. Maternal Mortality Rate” that jumpstarted the national conversation on maternal mortality. This article reported a 26.6% increase in maternal mortality from 2000 to 2014 for 48 states and Washington, DC (California and Texas were analyzed separately). In Texas, it was discovered that black women accounted for 29% of maternal deaths, but only 11% of births in the state. They concluded that maternal mortality in the U.S. was trending in the opposite direction of international trends, and that there was a profound and urgent need to improve efforts to prevent these deaths.
Since that time, the heart-breaking stories of black mothers dying during or shortly after giving birth continue to provide indisputable cause for the resulting medical and political alarm. Serena Williams shared her story of suffering a pulmonary embolism (PE) the day following delivery of her daughter. To put this in context, a pulmonary embolism is a blood clot within the vasculature of the lungs that can lead to hypoxia and ultimate cardiovascular collapse. A PE carries a mortality rate as high as 15 to 30%. Serena had already experienced a PE prior to pregnancy, which allowed her to recognize the symptoms. She not only alerted medical staff of her symptoms, she even verbalized the necessary imaging (a CT) and treatment (anticoagulation therapy). But the nurse brushed off her complaints as confusion from pain medication. It was only because she insisted, that a doctor performed further evaluation leading to her diagnosis. Her life was saved, but so many other women’s lives are lost.
The latest statistics are that black women are 3 to 4 times more likely to die of a pregnancy related complication than white women, a stat that persists even when access to health care, education, and income are equal or higher than that of their white counterparts.
The statistics are daunting, but they are real. My next post will highlight steps that are being taken in the medical and political sectors toward prevention.
