Black women face a maternal health crisis, and advocates want it to be an election issue
Advocates want the Nov. 5 election to help raise awareness about reproductive health inequities impacting Black women.
Francisca Shaw said she knew something was deeply wrong as she was rushed into an emergency cesarean for the delivery of her third child, a daughter, at Seattle’s University of Washington Medical Center in 2015.
“I remember I told my doctor when I was getting cut: ‘I can’t breathe,” Shaw recalled saying. “She said: ‘Oh yeah, you can.’”
Shaw’s uterus ruptured during the c-section, causing heavy bleeding. She required a hysterectomy and went into cardiac arrest, according to medical records reviewed by Reuters. She was hospitalized for three weeks after the birth, the records show.
The University of Washington Medical Center did not comment on Shaw’s case, citing federal privacy laws, but said it was “committed to ensuring high quality and equity” in all of its patient care.
Advocates are trying to use the Nov. 5 election as a moment to raise awareness about reproductive health inequities impacting Black women, including higher rates of pregnancy and delivery complications and deaths, as well as higher rates of certain cancers.
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