maternal health
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'I Am Battle-Tested': Va. Gubernatorial Candidate Jennifer Carroll Foy Says Her Commitment to Black Maternal Health Is Personal
Former Democratic Virginia delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy almost didn’t live to become a gubernatorial candidate. As she shared with Elle on Monday, she almost died giving birth to her twin boys three years ago, “because, as is the case for many Black women, white doctors and nurses downplayed and dismissed her excruciating postpartum pain.” The…
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Why Was 'Childbirth' Trending on Twitter? Because It’s Kind of a Big Deal
If you’re reading this, at some point you were born—and whether naturally, with an epidural or via cesarean section, it was indisputably a major physical event for the woman who carried you, no matter how much she may have wanted to welcome you into the world. In fact, it may have been so traumatic she…
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Chrissy Teigen and John Legend Share Loss of Third Child During Pregnancy: 'We Love You, Jack'
In a painful and deeply personal message posted late Wednesday on Instagram, Chrissy Teigen shared that she and husband John Legend lost their third child, a son they had been calling “Jack.” The post came just days after Teigen revealed her worsening pregnancy complications. “We are shocked and in the kind of deep pain you…
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New York Announces Maternal Health Task Force to Help Support Pregnant Parents Amid Coronavirus Outbreak
On Wednesday afternoon, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned that the coronavirus pandemic is “not gonna be over anytime soon,” suggesting that the city’s overburdened hospital system will have to continue its herculean efforts to treat the outbreak for some time. There is a sliver of good news for the city’s pregnant parents, however. With…
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Having a Baby While Black: NATAL Is the Podcast Pregnant Black Parents Have Been Waiting For
It’s a question you normally wouldn’t ask a stranger, but ever since starting a podcast about black people and pregnancy, Martina Abrahams Ilunga and Gabrielle Horton have fielded it constantly: Do they plan on having kids? Horton and Ilunga are the executive producers and hosts of a new docuseries, NATAL, which focuses on the entirety…
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How to Protect Black Moms in America
Each year in the United States, more black women get sick or die during and after pregnancy than the year before. That’s because America is the only developed country in the world where maternal mortality has actually increased in recent decades. The U.S. maternal mortality rate—defined as the death of a woman while pregnant or…
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Nike Says ‘Just Do It’—But for the Women They Sponsor, Does ‘It’ Include Pregnancy?
Alysia Montaño is more than a track star; she’s an Olympian and three-time U.S. national champion. And when she chose to compete while eight months pregnant with her first child in 2014, she also earned the moniker “the pregnant runner.” If Montaño’s accolades—and athleticism—sound inspiring, they are. But for her sponsors—first Nike, followed by Asics—her…
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New Postpartum Depression Drug Offers Hope for Suffering Mothers—but Most Won't Be Able to Afford It
A new drug specifically for the swift and effective treatment of postpartum depression was approved by the FDA on Tuesday, offering a beacon of hope for the serious mental illness that affects about 1 in 8 new mothers. That’s the good news. The not-so-great news is that this new drug ain’t cheap; neither is it…
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Mother Says Medics Denied Her Daughter an Ambulance Ride Because They Assumed She Couldn't Afford It. Her Daughter Died Days Later
Hillsborough County, Fla., has suspended four fire-rescue medics for refusing to give a black 30-year-old woman suffering stroke symptoms a ride in an ambulance. According to the victim’s mother, she and her daughter, Crystle Galloway, were told they couldn’t afford the ambulance ride. Galloway had just given birth to baby via a cesarian section five…