Black maternal health awareness

One word: pregnancy. What comes to mind? Usually, positive thoughts as pregnancy is one of life’s most celebrated occasions, often associated with feelings of happiness, excitement, and joy. Imagine, learning you are pregnant, and you carry this new human life for nine months successfully, go into labor, and deliver the baby. You and your family are on cloud nine as you get to feel, see, hear, and smell this newborn baby. Now imagine, several hours later or maybe several days later after experiencing feelings of exhilaration you now feel physical pain, uncertainty, fear, pending doom- something just isn’t right. Physically this may present as a strange cold sensation, difficulty breathing, chest pain, or dizziness. Imagine, you or your support person at the hospital notifies the nursing staff and asks for help. Imagine your pleas for help are delayed, diminished, or blatantly ignored. What do you think will happen next? For Black women, this scenario is real and occurring in the United States with data showing Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. More specifically, Indiana has the third-highest maternal mortality rate in the country as reported by the Indiana Capital Chronicle in...