Two Black sisters, two traumatic pregnancies
What should have been a joyous first pregnancy quickly for Angelica Lyons turned into a nightmare when she began to suffer debilitating stomach pain. Her pleas for help were shrugged off, she said, and she was repeatedly sent home from the hospital. Angelica said she wasn’t taken seriously until a searing pain rocketed throughout her body and her baby’s heart rate plummeted. Rushed into the operating room for an emergency cesarean section, months before her due date, she nearly died of an undiagnosed case of sepsis. Her experience is a reflection of the medical racism, bias and inattentive care that Black Americans endure. Black women have the highest maternal mortality rate in the United States — 69.9 per 100,000 live births for 2021, almost three times the rate for white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Black babies are more likely to die, and also far more likely to be born prematurely, setting the stage for health issues that could follow them through their lives. To be Black anywhere in America is to experience higher rates of chronic ailments like asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, Alzheimer's and, most recently, COVID-19. Black Americans have less access to adequate medical care; their life expectancy is shorter. From birth to death, regardless of wealth or social standing, they are far more likely to get sick and die from common ailments.
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Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during pregnancy or delivery than any other race. Black babies are also more likely to die, and also far more likely to be born prematurely, according to a project examining health disparities experienced by Black Americans across a lifetime.
