New report shows Black and Latina women have highest risk of death during childbirth in the U.S.
According to a new report published by University of Michigan, childbirth is killing Black women.
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According to a new report published by University of Michigan, childbirth is killing Black women, the Daily Mail reports.
The report due out in the November issue of the Journal Obstetrics & Gynecology revealed that non-Hispanic Black women are most at risk of having severe birth-related health problem than non-Hispanic white women. In fact, the rate is 70 percent higher.
Although life threatening complications post birth do happen, it’s normally at a rate of 1.6 percent of all deliveries. The study found that Black women and women who identified as Hispanic, Native American or Alaska Native, or Asian or Pacific Islander, had far worse outcomes than whites.
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The student examined 41,000 American women who experienced a life-saving medical procedure while hospitalized for delivery from 2012-2015. The national data was compiled by the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP).
HCUP is a federal index that catalogs various hospital care data, including information on in-patient stays, ambulatory surgery and services visits, and emergency department encounters, the news outlet reports.
A Cause Close to Her Heart
Better postpartum care is what Serena Williams advocated about when she experienced life-threatening complications after giving birth of her daughter Alexis Ohanian Jr.
Williams said “doctors aren’t listening so Black women are dying.”
In an interview with Vogue, the tennis pro shared scary post-partum moments that many women on Twitter could unfortunately relate to and they noted how Williams’ celebrity did not spare her from what seemed to be dismissive treatment from hospital staff.
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According to Vogue:
“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!’”
Beyoncé also opened up in the September issue of Vogue that she suffered from pre-eclampsia while pregnant with her twins Rumi and Sir.
“Women of color who have multiple health conditions before they have their baby appear to experience a ‘double whammy’ effect, which should force us to think about how to structure care to best serve these vulnerable women, not only during pregnancy but before and after giving birth too,” lead author Dr Lindsay Admon, an obstetrician at Michigan Medicine’s Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, told Daily Mail Online in a news release.
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