Towan Isom: When maternal health goes wrong

TOWAN AND SLOANE & When birthing our babies, death is the equalizer for Black women giving birth by Towan Isom, Isom Global Strategies President and CEO The best day of your life shouldn’t be the most fearful. Women like me, Abby Phillips, Elain Welteroth, and others know what it means to manifest the life we’ve always dreamed of. But when it comes to being a mom, income doesn’t matter. For Black and Brown women, our greatest dream can often be our worst nightmare because, regardless of our station, when it comes to healthy births for mothers and infants, the statistics are staggering: Black women are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes as are White women. Having a child at any age, economic level, or location should be a celebration, not a crisis. As a mature woman deciding to be a single mom, I knew that having my first child at age 49 via IVF (in vitro fertilization) would have its challenges: no husband and being self-employed running my own marketing agency for 24 years. I assumed Mr. Right would come, and I would be a mom of four. I waited years for “the dream,” but it never...