The Black Maternal Health Crisis

Imagine your race being a barrier in ensuring the health of both yourself and your newborn child.

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In 2010, Serena Williams found out that she had blood clots in her lungs. She’s been at high risk for blood clots ever since. She never could have imagined that, years later, she would have to defend her health condition to the doctors delivering her baby in order to save her own life.

Williams gave birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., on September 1, 2017 via a C-section. Immediately following the operation, Serena, concerned about her body’s tendency to form blood clots, asked her doctors why she hadn’t yet been put on a heparin drip. Her physicians quickly dismissed her, but Serena had to be taken into surgery after hacking coughs began to take over her body and her stitches burst open. Sure enough, it was discovered that Serena had an embolism - a clot in one of her arteries - as well as a hematoma in her abdomen. After a series of surgeries, Williams, confident that she knew her body with years of professional athleticism under her belt, told her nurse that she needed to have a CAT scan and be put on a heparin drip. Serena was dismissed once again, told that the medicine she was on was making her talk crazy. But once again, Serena was right. Another blood clot was found in her lungs that needed to be broken up before it began affecting her heart. A few days later, Williams was finally able to return home safely with her brand-new daughter in tow. “Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me,” Serena writes in her 2022 article with Elle.

Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related issues than white women are, and there are a number of reasons why. Studies have shown that Black families have one of the lowest median incomes compared to any other racial group in the United States, making it substantially more difficult for Black women to access high quality medical care. In addition, blood pressure conditions such as preeclampsia are more common in Black women due to a combination of biological, social, and cultural factors; early diagnosis and treatment of these complications are in much need of improvement. There’s one cause, however, that is often overlooked: Black women are more frequently dismissed and not taken seriously, like in the case of Serena Williams. Because over 80% of Black maternal deaths are preventable, it is inferable that a significant portion of these deaths can be traced back to doctors and nurses ignoring black mothers who have tried to advocate for their health. Black women are also generally treated differently in hospitals, either through direct care or via poor communication when crucial details of a patient’s medical history fail to get passed along, often putting the patient’s health in danger at some point throughout their treatment. It’s beginning to be recognized that implicit bias and structural racism are considerable issues in the medical industry, and some hospitals have implemented equity training to combat them. Even still, it’s incredibly important to spread awareness and publicize the experiences of Black mothers in order to encourage health establishments to take these problems more seriously.

A recent 7-2 decision made by the Supreme Court also contributes to the crisis: the overturning of Roe v. Wade has a more significant impact on Black women than most people may initially consider. Pregnancy poses more risks to women’s health than abortion does, particularly for Black women. According to sociologist Amanda Stevenson from the Population Center at the University of Colorado Boulder, research conducted in 2021 showed that banning abortion nationwide would lead to a 21% increase in pregnancy-related deaths for all women, and a 33% increase among Black women. The explanation behind this statistic is twofold: the mortality risk of carrying a pregnancy is much higher for Black women, and they are more likely to seek abortion due to a lack of access to housing, education, jobs, and health care. Therefore, outlawing abortion increases Black women’s exposure to pregnancy-related mortality and, in turn, exacerbates the Black maternal health crisis.

Pregnancy is already an extremely anxiety-ridden time for most women, and, although socioeconomic status undoubtedly plays a role, having to worry about being taken seriously because of the color of your skin in your delivery room is a burden that no woman should have to bear. Hospitals and medical establishments have begun taking small steps towards repairing the issue of inherent racism present in their institutions, but there is still much progress to be made.