lifestyle before conception. Diet and water intake are crucial, along with taking a daily vitamin and being diligent about prenatal care appointments. But just because you eat well does not always insure a smooth pregnancy, as some complications can develop regardless. No matter the cause, every pregnant woman deserves access to doctors who can and will diagnose and treat any complications that may arise so that she can have a smooth pregnancy and delivery. So what is happening in the doctor’s office that is leading to the death of black pregnant women?
You can simply google “Black women Maternal mortality rate” and you will be presented with plenty of articles detailing accounts of women who’s symptoms of pain have been ignored by their healthcare providers, to the detriment of their unborn children and sometimes themselves.
It’s no secret that some medical professionals hold racist or sexist bias toward women of color and their pain thresholds. In an August 2018 CBS interview titled At risk: mothers and childbirth, Harvard medical professor Neel Shah outright says, “We believe black women less when they express concerns about the type of symptoms they are having, particularly when it comes to pain.”
If that doesn’t convince you that there is truly an underlying issue with our healthcare system just ask the women around you about their experiences. I did.
Two women very close to me recently had horrible experiences while pregnant, and both were healthy prior to becoming pregnant. The first woman, who was pregnant with twins, consistently complained of pain, headaches, being unable to eat, sleep or move, to her doctors for weeks.
In return, she had her calls unanswered or not returned and was told during visits that it was just normal pregnancy pain, even when her blood pressure came back high during a second trimester check up. It was not until midway through her third trimester and hours after being admitted to the ER that she was told she actually had preeclampsia.
At 33 weeks, she was rushed to the operating room to