New research shows the rate of women dying from pregnancy-related medical conditions has worsened in recent years. And Black women are three times as likely to die of such an illness as White women.

This comes at a time when the very agencies charged with reducing these deaths are facing cuts from the Trump administration.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services laid off 10,000 federal workers, including people in the department tasked with monitoring and improving maternal and child health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“I know that with the information that we’ve come across regarding Black maternal health, really, we are just touching the surface,” said Denise Banton, director of Rush University Medical Center labor, delivery and postpartum units. “There are so many things that still need to be addressed.”

Banton said Rush works closely with community health partners to continue to address health disparities within the Black community.

A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows the rate of maternal mortality not only increased by 27.7% from 2018 to 2022, but that the racial disparities also widened — with Black women having the second-highest rate at 2.8 times higher than White women, behind Native American women at 3.8 times higher.

Previous studies showed consistent increases in maternal mortality in the U.S. Compared to other high-income countries, the U.S. has a significantly higher maternal mortality rate. However, the recent JAMA study focused on long-term health up to a year postpartum.

“There needs to be more comprehensive education, culturally appropriate education from the doctor to explain the potential pitfalls,” said Toni Taylor, co-founder of Chicago Birthworks Collective. “Those touch points need to be visited frequently, throughout gestation, throughout the delivery, throughout the postpartum period.”

Chicago Birthworks Collective is a maternal wellness company that provides full-circle doula care on the city’s South Side. Doulas provide non-medical emotional, physical, nutritional and informational support to pregnant people before, during and after pregnancy.

Last year, Cook County Health launched a program aimed at connecting pregnant patients with doulas in an effort to address high rates of maternal mortality and birth complications.

“We still have a long way to go,” said Mekazin Alexander, co-founder and executive director of BA NIA. “However, I would like to commend Gov. Pritkzer and Lt. Gov. Stratton for recognizing the importance of organizations that are community-based and culturally congruent that are working to reduce the maternal mortality rate. Our medical health care systems need to follow suit and allow birth workers the opportunity to work alongside them and not see us as a threat.”

Advocates in the community also stress the importance of wraparound services for pregnant patients and say a lack of adequate resources contributes to preventable health complications during pregnancy.

“Fewer grocery stores on the South and West Side make it more difficult for people to access food,” said Jameika Sampson, senior director of Community Health and Equity for Planned Parenthood of Illinois.

PPIL initiated a Bridges to Care Program at three of its health centers: Flossmoor, Austin and Roseland. The program provides prenatal visits with a nurse practitioner and a prenatal case manager, and connects patients with obstetricians to avoid extended wait times.

However, there have been cases of patients who have a high economic and education status who are still subject to high-risk births and pregnancy, like Serena Williams, who experienced complications during childbirth, or Olympic sprinter Tori Bowie, who died during childbirth.

“Oftentimes, they say that the answer to a lot of the maternal statistics is education,” Taylor said. “That’s not one-sided. You can’t just educate a mom. The education of a mom is not going to stop the medical trauma that happens at the hospital. Until there is a reform, a retraining and re-learning of medical staff and being held accountable and policies being changed, I don’t really see this changing.”

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