News

Why Are Black Mothers Dying During Childbirth More/Miscarrying At Work in America?

Posted on October 23, 2018

Charles Johnson , his wife Kyira Adele Dixon and their son Charles in Cartagena Colombia August 23, 2015 Photo Credit: Courtesy Charles Johnson

For every 13 white women who die during pregnancy or within one year of giving birth, there are 44 black women. Most of these deaths are preventable.

Maternal death rates is rising in America and black women are dying most. According to the Centers for Disease Control, black women are three to four times more at risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes than any other race.

“The experience of being black in America is so fundamentally different from the experience of being white in America that it translates to health outcomes,” said Dr. William Callaghan, chief of the CDC’s Maternal and Infant Health Branch.

It is happening at every socioeconomic level. Tennis Champ Serena Williams complained of doctors not listening to her about her critical chronic condition after the birth of her first child.

Trending this week is the story of celebrity TV Judge, Judge Hatchett‘s daughter in law, Kyira Johnson, who was a 39-year-old and mom to a 19-month old son with her husband, Charles Johnson IV, Judge Hatchett’s son.

Kyria walked into Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for a scheduled C-section to deliver her second son Langton in 2016— and would never walk out.

Judge Hatchett, her son Charles Johnson and his childeren Langston and Charles at home in Atlanta, GA on 6/20/17. Photographer: Julian Dufort

“We were expecting this to be a walk in the park,” Charles, 36, an entrepreneur, told PEOPLE magazine in a feature last year. “We thought we’d go in, high five, spend a couple days in the hospital and come home with two little boys.”

Charles said he noticed blood in Kira’s catheter and that she was in pain, but “smiled through the pain”

“She never complained,” he shared to that site. “She was so tough.” Kyria later died caused by a lacerated bladder that occurred during her C-section. Charles’ family sued but he didn’t stop there and has been working to create new laws and change policy, even testifying before congressional panels in Washington.

It’s not just the pre and post child birth experience either.

A new New York Times report indicates that women are also suffering miscarriages when they are denied requests for light duty at work when pregnant. The article told the story of few warehouse employees who lifted heavy boxes after work after begging their supervisors to work with lighter boxes but were repeatedly told no.

Editor’s note: As a black mother, I find this trend and the news coming out of several reports quite troubling.

This is a health crisis that should be addressed but I have no hope that it will get better before it gets worse if some things don’t change. Racism and discrimination, health disparity and negative attitudes towards certain groups won’t help either.

Could the solution be more doulas and midwifes and better laws and policies, and implementation? Perhaps! Let’s continue the conversation online at Bellyitch on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Find me JayJay Ghatt on Twitter!

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News

New Law Forbids Clubs From Denying Entry to Pregnant Women

Posted on May 26, 2016

When I was working as a publicist about a decade ago and pregnant, I was refused entry into a nightclub where my client was gigging at because I was visibly pregnant. Now if this event had happened today in New York City, it would be against the law for that club to deny me entry, thanks to a new law under the city’s Human Rights Commission guidelines.

Among other expansive protections for pregnant women for the purposes of protecting them from discrimination is a provision that says mothers-to-be can’t be kept out of bars or denied alcoholic drinks just because they’re expecting.

“Judgments and stereotypes about how pregnant individuals should behave, their physical capabilities and what is or is not healthy for a fetus are pervasive in our society and cannot be used as pretext for unlawful discriminatory decisions” in public venues, the new guidelines say.

And as you could guess, there is a lawsuit at the heart of this new law. A NYC agency lawyer, Lauren Elfant, told the Associated Press that the commission is looking into a case concerning a pregnant woman denied entry to a bar or club.

The law also protects those women who choose to have a glass of wine while pregnant as it is not against the law.

One woman AP interviewed for the report, Carlota Fluxa, said she occasionally ordered a glass of wine with dinner during her pregnancy as that is no big deal in her native Spain. While no one denied her the wine, Fluxa said she felt that “in general, a lot of people are paying attention to whether you’re drinking or not drinking.”

Read more about the intriquing report here.

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BumpNews

Report: Gay and Lesbian teens get pregnant to avoid homophobic bullying

Posted on August 6, 2014

Gay and Lesbian Canadian teens have a higher risk of becoming pregnant or causing a pregnancy, a British Columbia health survey revealed. The 2013 report from the findings also showed gay and bisexual teen boys are nearly four times more likely to cause a pregnancy, and lesbian and bisexual girls are more than twice as likely to get pregnant.

Researchers link the high rate to teens trying to circumvent bullying, harassment and discrimination and camouflaging their sexual orientation to avoid or reduce homophobic bullying.

The survey was of 30,000 Grade 7-12 students, in 56 out of 59 provincial school districts.

Mommy Wars: How the Start-Up mom has it THE HARDEST

Posted on February 23, 2014

“Many mothers find it difficult to raise a family and try to run a business because both the children and the business take a lot of time all by themselves,” an article on the Top 3 Reasons Mothers don’t Start Up in ParentStartup.com states. Another New York Times piece and another recent article talked about how Venture Capitalist discriminate against mothers.

From that NYT piece:

“[M]uch of the investment world, heavily dominated by men, remains skeptical about a woman’s ability to combine running a fast-growing tech start-up and motherhood, Ms. Gugnani says. She raised $3 million from investors before becoming pregnant.

“All of the women I know who went to raise money did it when they didn’t have kids,” she says. “There is total discrimination in the start-up world against women who are pregnant.”

Making pregnancy and motherhood a focal point of the investment process is an outdated way of thinking, she adds.

Female entrepreneurs are less numerous and raise less money than their male counterparts. Women make up 10 percent of the founders at high-growth tech companies, “and they raise 70 percent less money than men do because of their lack of access to capital,” says Lesa Mitchell of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, where she is vice president for initiatives on advancing innovation.”

And so, the “Start-up mom” joins the Mommy Wars.

Background:

The mommy wars is an ongoing battle between mothers disputing and discussing which child rearing method is best: Sleep in Room v Nursery; Bottle-feeding v. Breastfeeding; Baby wearing v. Carrier; Sling v. Bjorn; Cry It Out v. Not; Heavily Scheduled baby v. Let baby control sleep and eating.

Moms are opinionated and each one believes her method or solution is tops. Of course, to each its own but that doesn’t stop those who have hard-fast thoughts on one thing from speaking up and trying to convince others this. They will not be silenced. They may bully others into their perspective.

Another mommy battle is the battle between Stay-at-Home (SAHM) versus Work-at-home (WAHM) versus Working Moms. Working moms often feel SAHM guilt trip them over spending less time with their children. Meanwhile, SAHMs say they feel belittled by Working Moms who assume they do nothing all day but eat bonbons while their kids are at school. Working Moms say SAHMs are privileged enough to not have to work yet judge those harshly who do. Work-at-home moms say they have the best and worst of each scenario.

Now that the Start Up mom has been brought into the picture, as a work-at home Start up mom, I proffer that the Start-up or Entrepreneurial mom has it THE HARDEST.

Why?

While start up moms do have the luxury of being able to chaperon school field trips, attend school meetings and take our kids to the library as I do daily, they also have the challenge of having to clean the home, provide meals, and be a homemaker all while not bringing income but expected to.

Unlike the SAHM who is not expected to bring in external income, the Start-up mom has to contribute to the family expenses.

Unlike the Working Mom or Work-at-home who is working for a company and at least bringing in guaranteed income, the Start-up mom works for no one and has to go out and generate income from independent sources.

The Start-Up Mom has to bring home the bacon by working 50 hour weeks trying to build a company that makes little to no money that may never be successful enough to generate income or funding.

And she has a tough haul raising money to fund her venture, considering that recent Business Insider story revealing how the VC industry discriminates against mothers.

It’s a hard uphill battle to bear along with the other family responsibility on our backs.

Yeah, we have it the hardest!

What do you think?

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pregnancy discrimination

For every 13 white women who die during pregnancy or within one year of giving birth, there are 44 black women. Most of these deaths are preventable.