Meet Three Innovators Shifting the Maternal Health Narrative
April 17, 2019No one can deny that there is a maternal health crisis, with many U.S. women experiencing pregnancy-related complications and even death.
Ending Wednesday, Black Maternal Health Week emphasizes the particularly high risk for Black women, who are more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. But while these preventable deaths are alarming, many advocates say there’s more to maternal health than Black death. Some are looking to creative solutions that don’t rely solely on medical practices.
In that vein, Rewire.News talked to three people—a tech worker with a vision, a painter and breastfeeding advocate, and a public health professor who’s thinking about geography and preterm birth. Each experiments with telling maternal health stories in her own way, and at least two want to shift the Black maternal health crisis narrative to emphasize on Black life, community self-help, and #BlackJoy.