‘Change for the future’: Cincinnati moms work to lower death rates for Black mothers, babies

Latosha Shelton, 28 weeks pregnant and hyperventilating, shoved aside her midwife’s advice to “wait it out,” gripped the steering wheel and headed for the hospital, screaming. She’d spent weeks experiencing frightening symptoms – swelling feet, swelling face, headaches, stomach pains – and hearing doctors tell her that she was overreacting, these symptoms were just first pregnancy woes. “I wasn’t listened to,” she said. “I felt like I had to be like, ‘Am I being dramatic?’ It let me ignore myself.” Not this time. She awoke around 3 a.m. in agonizing pain and realized she had not felt her baby move all day. A midwife suggested by phone she try some sugar, then wait an hour to see if the baby was stimulated. Shelton arrived at the emergency department with critically high blood pressure. Her platelets would not clot. Her placenta had no amniotic fluid. She had a rare syndrome called Hellp, a type of preeclampsia that causes elevated liver enzymes and a low platelet count. “My organs were shutting down.” Kendall Rose was delivered by cesarean section at 1 pound, 13 ounces, and her mother was stabilized. The ordeal, Shelton said, “changed my life forever.” ‘Queens’ take on Black infant,...