Black maternal mortality rates can be lowered with better access to health care

Serena Williams. Allyson Felix. Kira Johnson. All three vibrant, successful, and previously healthy black women experienced severe complications during childbirth. Maternal death is the death of a woman during pregnancy and up to six weeks after pregnancy from “causes related to or aggravated by the pregnancy.” Major causes of these deaths include heavy bleeding (Johnson bled for hours internally following a routine cesarean section and died) infection, preeclampsia and eclampsia, complications from delivery and an unsafe abortion. The U.S. is failing women of child-bearing age. In 2020, the World Health Organization reported the U.K. had a maternal mortality rate of 9.8 deaths per every 100,000 births, less than half the rate of the U.S. In 2021, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Black women experience a maternal mortality rate of 69.9/100,000 births — almost three times the rate of non-Hispanic white women. Black women experience greater difficulty accessing care, encounter health care providers who are biased, and incur higher stress due to structural racism. SEND LETTERS TO: letters@suntimes.com. To be considered for publication, letters must include your full name, your neighborhood or hometown and a phone number for verification purposes. Letters should be a maximum of approximately...