CLEVELAND — Maternal mortality rates have shown a troubling trend increasing by 33 % and trends have also shown that Black and Hispanic women are dying at a higher rate.
Cicely Philpot is the mother of beautiful Lydia and her journey was not easy.
“It made me high risk in several ways, because of my uterine issues, because of my age, and also because of my race and the fact that there are still issues in our country and our medical systems with systemic racism,” said Philpot.
On April 15 she went in for her c-section knowing it was going to be hard.
"I threw up the entire time, it was very rough. I also lost a lot of blood and had to have a transfusion,” said Philpot.
But she came with a doula by her side.
“I think that having the support and the expertise of my doula was invaluable to my family,” said Philpot.
Though she was lucky not every mother is, data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that maternal mortality death rates have increased by 33%. When you break it down some more, Hispanic women had a 74% increase, Black women had a 40% increase, and white women had a 17% increase. All compared to the years before and those numbers are reflected right here in Northeast Ohio.
“In Cuyahoga County, African-American mothers are three to four times more likely to die in childbirth than our white counterparts,” said Jazmin Long with Birthing Beautiful Communities.
Long has worked with mothers for more than seven years and she says this isn’t a new issue, it all ties back to the inequities and racial ethics minorities have felt for years.
“So we've seen research and studies and evidence-based practices to show that toxic stress caused by racism, both structural, institutional and individual, causes harm to mothers and causes them to have extreme premature babies, which leads to poor birth outcomes,” said Long.
With the pandemic just putting that on steroids.
“We saw more black and brown mothers having to still go to work, be in potential positions that did not allow them to work from home, to be essential workers, and to have to still go into the workforce and we saw dramatic results of loss of mothers lives and babies lives,” said Long
At the birthing center, they provide many things to ensure healthy mothers and deliveries offering things such as doulas, mental health assistance, and recovery therapy. All things Long says play a factor in lowering maternal mortality rates.
“So, our approach to birthing medical communities, where we have been very successful, of course, is providing culturally centered black mothers, a black mother or black woman to black women support,” said Long.
It doesn't stop there, Cicely recommended moms get educated and reach out to programs
“I’d like to see more advocacy on behalf of moms, especially those who don't have access, maybe don't have the transportation that they need, don't have the financial support they need, don't have the especially the village support,” said Philpot.
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