Black women in the United States are three to five times more likely to die from pregnancy or postpartum issues than white women—a maternal mortality crisis that cannot be ignored. In Glamour’s Black Maternal Health series, we’re sharing these stories—and solutions.
To be pregnant as a Black woman in the United States is to take on a life-threatening risk. Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications (and are more likely to have serious pregnancy complications) than white women. It doesn’t matter if you have a certain amount of money, or education. It doesn’t even matter if you’re Beyoncé.
Institutional racism is a likely contributing factor, so when powerful Black women speak out about Black maternal health, it’s incredibly important in raising awareness.
Here are some of the women who have done just that—speaking about their own experiences and why much needs to be done to change the systems that place Black women in danger.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé is a notoriously private celebrity, especially when it comes to her family. But she has spoken out on the issue of Black maternal health concerning her own experience surrounding the birth of her and Jay-Z’s twins, Rumi and Sir.
“I was 218 pounds the day I gave birth,” she said in her Netflix documentary, Homecoming. “I had high blood pressure. I developed toxemia, preeclampsia, and in the womb, one of my babies’ heartbeats paused a few times, so I had to get an emergency C-section.
“My body went through more than I knew it could,” she continued.
The singer elaborated on the complications she experienced in an essay for Vogue.
“I was swollen from toxemia and had been on bed rest for over a month. My health and my babies’ health were in danger, so I had an emergency C-section. We spent many weeks in the NICU. My husband was a soldier and such a strong support system for me,” she wrote. “I am proud to have been a witness to his strength and evolution as a man, a best friend, and a father. I was in survival mode and did not grasp it all until months later. Today I have a connection to any parent who has been through such an experience. After the C-section, my core felt different. It had been major surgery. Some of your organs are shifted temporarily, and in rare cases, removed temporarily during delivery. I am not sure everyone understands that.
“I needed time to heal, to recover. During my recovery, I gave myself self-love and self-care, and I embraced being curvier,” she continued. “I accepted what my body wanted to be. After six months, I started preparing for Coachella. I became vegan temporarily, gave up coffee, alcohol, and all fruit drinks. But I was patient with myself and enjoyed my fuller curves. My kids and husband did, too.”
Serena Williams
Even being one of the greatest athletes who has ever lived didn’t prevent Williams from having dangerous complications while giving birth to daughter, Olympia—and she’s been quite open about sharing her story in hopes of raising awareness.
She laid it all out in an essay for CNN in February 2018, opening with the stark truth: “I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia. Yet I consider myself fortunate.” Williams goes on to describe her “fairly easy” pregnancy and emergency C-section, after Olympia’s heart rate dropped. Everything seemed fine—until it wasn’t.
“It began with a pulmonary embolism, which is a condition in which one or more arteries in the lungs becomes blocked by a blood clot. Because of my medical history with this problem, I live in fear of this situation,” she wrote. “So, when I fell short of breath, I didn’t wait a second to alert the nurses.
“This sparked a slew of health complications that I am lucky to have survived. First my C-section wound popped open due to the intense coughing I endured as a result of the embolism,” she continued. “I returned to surgery, where the doctors found a large hematoma, a swelling of clotted blood, in my abdomen. And then I returned to the operating room for a procedure that prevents clots from traveling to my lungs. When I finally made it home to my family, I had to spend the first six weeks of motherhood in bed.”
Williams received excellent care, but she writes about how that is not the case for way too many Black women, in America and around the world. “When they have complications like mine, there are often no drugs, health facilities or doctors to save them,” she wrote. “If they don’t want to give birth at home, they have to travel great distances at the height of pregnancy. Before they even bring a new life into this world, the cards are already stacked against them.
“Every mother, everywhere, regardless of race or background deserves to have a healthy pregnancy and birth. And you can help make this a reality.”
Allyson Felix
Six-time Olympic gold medallist Allyson Felix is a champion on and off the track. In 2019 she testified on Capitol Hill about the importance of overcoming the racial disparities in the nation’s maternal health and mortality crisis following her own life-threatening experience.
“Mothers don’t die from childbirth, right? Not in 2019. Not professional athletes. Not at one of the best hospitals in the country,” Felix said. “I thought maternal health was solely about fitness, resources, and care. If that was true, why was this happening to me? I was doing everything right.
“I learned that my story was not uncommon. There were others like me, just like me,” she continued. “Black like me, healthy like me, doing their best, just like me. And they faced death just like me too.
“We need to provide women of color with more support during their pregnancies,” Felix said. “There’s a level of racial bias within our health care system that is troubling and will be difficult to tackle, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t.”
She detailed her experience in an essay published by Glamour earlier this year, recounting her emergency C-section on November 28, 2018—at only 32 weeks pregnant—because of preeclampsia. The athlete and first-time mother explained that had she not gone for a check-up and delivered her baby that day, she and her daughter, Camryn, could have died.
“To be faced with losing your own life creates a certain level of fear. But thinking about losing the life of my unborn child just felt unbearable,” she wrote. “I was terrified because I didn’t feel prepared for this. I hadn’t been looking for the signs of preeclampsia. I didn’t feel educated.”
Kamala Harris
Senator Harris (D-Calif.) hasn’t just spoken up about Black maternal health; she has helped introduce legislation to try to bring more equal treatment to Black women. (And re-introduced the Maternal CARE Act.)
“This historic package of bills that would tackle systemic health disparities by making much-needed investments in social determinants that influence maternal health outcomes, like housing, transportation and nutrition,” she wrote about the Black Maternal Momnibus for Essence in April. “It calls for more diversity in the perinatal workforce, so every mom is provided with inclusive care. The Momnibus will make investments to ensure all women—including women veterans and incarcerated women—have access to resources and support, including doula services. This bill also provides funding for digital tools to improve maternal health outcomes, no matter where you live.
“We can’t let up the fight to address maternal mortality in America—especially right now,” she continued. "When we address both the systematic disparities and implicit bias in both our society and our health care system, we can get to the point where being Black and pregnant is full of joy and free from fear of preventable death.
Tatyana Ali
The former Fresh Prince of Bel Air star wrote an essay for Essence in 2019 about the serious issues facing Black mothers, as well as her own traumatic birth experience with her first son.
Ali says the birth went “completely off script” and that her delivery room became a “circus” that eventually led to an emergency C-section and a few days in the NICU for her son. When Ali found out she was pregnant with her second child, she chose a Black doula as her primary caregiver.
“Yet U.S. media have pathologized the story, as though Black women, Black families, and Black bodies are to blame,” she wrote. “Some Black women I’ve spoken with are now scared to get pregnant as if there is something broken in us. Because our lives are so often framed in a ‘culture of poverty’ narrative, I fear that we have internalized the problem and made ourselves the cause when the truth is we are being treated unfairly, disrespectfully, at worst criminally, or not treated at all.”
Michelle Obama
In her best-selling memoir, Becoming, the former first lady revealed that her daughters, Malia and Sasha, were born using in vitro fertilization (IVF). “I felt like I failed,” Obama told Robin Roberts during an interview. “Because I didn’t know how common miscarriages were. Because we don’t talk about them.”
Good Morning America later reported on the Michelle Obama Effect which saw more Black women seeking fertility treatment. “There is a whole long list of celebrities who have shared something about their infertility, but this was different,” Barbara Collura, president and CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association, told GMA. “When Michelle Obama spoke out, it was like earth-shattering. It was a very big deal.”
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6 Celebrities Who Have Spoken Out About Black Maternal Health - Glamour
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