Blog, Film Reviews, Human Rights, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal mortality, sex trafficking, Women and Girls

New Documentaries About the Maternal Health Crisis, Sex Trafficking Coming to VOD This Year

When I want to learn more about a subject I always turn to documentaries. They provide a quick way to get the facts and crucial information about an issue I am interested in and then if I want to learn more I turn to other resources including books, news articles, research papers, and the like.

While I know a considerable amount about two new documentaries coming to video on demand (VOD) this year, I know some don’t and can use these as jumping points to learn more about the maternal health crisis in the United States and sex trafficking around the world.

Jennifer JamesFebruary 23, 2022February 23, 2022Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, SDGs, Sustainable Development Goals

World Health Leaders Change Targets to Reach 2030 Maternal Health Development Goal

The COVID pandemic did much to upend global health. Not only were hospitals filled to overcapacity worldwide with patients experiencing severe COVID symptoms, but entire health systems were also brought to a halt. Routine medical procedures and quality care in other areas besides COVID were preempted by the global virus. This has caused global health goals to suffer, notably decreasing preventable maternal deaths.

This month the World Health Organization along with the UNFPA created new goals in order to get back on track to reach Sustainable Development Goal 3.1 – reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100 000 live births – by 2030. Right now, the estimates are at 211 deaths per 100,000 live births.

Currently, 810 women still die per day due to complications caused by pregnancy and childbirth. While this number is a drastic improvement from a decade ago there is still much to do in order to save more mothers’ lives not only in the United States but worldwide.

Jennifer JamesOctober 26, 2021Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, Women, Women and Girls

5 Virtual Valentine’s Day Gifts to Help Mothers Worldwide

This year while we are all still mostly locked down due to Covid-19, there are ways in which we can donate to the issues we care about most. For SocialGoodMoms.com, our primary issue is mothers — always has been and always will be — and there are a vast majority of ways to help moms across the globe through donations this time of year.

Here are five organizations to donate to this Valentine’s Day to spread not only love, but maternal health and wellness.

Jennifer JamesFebruary 12, 2021Leave a comment

Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality

2021 Black Maternal Health Legislation Updated With Covid-19, Climate Change Bills #Momnibus

In 2020, Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) and Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) along with then California senator Kamala Harris introduced the Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a series of nine bills that took racial disparities out of the maternal health outcomes, funded communty-based maternal health organizations, improved data collection, and invested in digital health tools among other pertinent issues. While the legislation didn’t gain much traction, legislators believe it … Continue reading 2021 Black Maternal Health Legislation Updated With Covid-19, Climate Change Bills #Momnibus

Jennifer JamesFebruary 11, 2021Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, MaternalMonday

Black Doctor Dies During Childbirth #MaternalHealth #BlackMaternalHeaLTH

I do not take pleasure in writing about black maternal health in general or specifically about black women who die either during pregnancy, giving birth, directly after birth, or even a year after having a baby. In fact, it is depressing. In this case, however, despite the other women who have died publicly during and/or because of childbirth, I decided to write about this mother … Continue reading Black Doctor Dies During Childbirth #MaternalHealth #BlackMaternalHeaLTH

Jennifer JamesNovember 12, 2020Leave a comment

Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, United States

CDC Launches Campaign To Raise Awareness About Pregnancy and Postpartum Warning Signs

The other day I wrote about a Youtube mom who recently gave birth to her son and then recognized that her blood pressure was too high after she was released from the hospital. She immediately visited her OBGYN and then ultimately was hospitalized due to the severity of her condition, preeclampsia. You can follow her journey at R & L Life. She, her husband, and sister have updated viewers about how she is doing. Watching her videos shows how difficult it is for her doctors to get her blood pressure down after several days. It is all to show that warning signs during and after pregnancy are important to listen to and act upon as she did.

Jennifer JamesAugust 15, 2020Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, United States

[VIDEO] Mother Advocates for Her Own Health After Delivery And Preeclampsia #BlackMaternalHealth

A few years ago I was honored to speak at Blogher with Merck for Mothers. The panel was about maternal health outcomes globally as well as in the United States. As I have mentioned so many times on this blog, the United States leads the developing world with maternal health deaths. This number is exaccerbated by the sheer number of black women who die from pregnancy and delivery complications.

One of the key points we honed in on during the panel was the importance of women being advocates for themselves with their healthcare providers when they feel something is wrong. But, that is not always easy. Take Serena Williams for example. She basically had to beg doctors and nurses to get a CT scan to see if her lung had blood clots which she routinely got as an athlete. They finally relented and what did they find? Blood clots in her lungs. Serena saved her own life.

Many women, especially black women, are not afforded the opportunity to simply get a doctor or nurse to believe that they do not feel well and oftentimes their lives are hanging in the balance. In fact, NPR and ProPublica gathered over 200 stories from black women who felt that they had been “devalued and disrespected by medical providers” during their pregnancies.

I regularly watch a Youtube channel called R&L Life, a cute family channel out of Florida. The mother, Rachael, recently delivered her son and a few days later she had preeclampsia symptoms with massive swelling and high blood pressure. She and her husband went to her doctor only to discover she could have a seizure at any time because of her high blood pressure. She needed to be rushed to the hospital for oral medication and a magnesium drip.

Jennifer JamesAugust 9, 2020August 14, 2020Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality

The CDC Releases Newly Updated Maternal Death Statistics in Over a Decade

United States maternal death statistics that have been used for over a decade have finally been updated. The CDC released 2018 national and state maternal death estimates last week. The numbers have increased dramatically and still remain the worst of any developed country in the world.

Currently, the maternal mortality rate (MMR) is 17.4 deaths per 100,000 live births. In 2007, the MMR was 12.7 deaths per 100,000 live births. The CDC says the MMR increase largely comes from the new data and collection requirements now on standard death certificates. Starting in 2003, a checkbox requirement was placed on the U.S. Standard Certificate of Death in order to accurately record maternal deaths. The checkboxes are:

Not pregnant within past year
Pregnant at time of death
Not pregnant, but pregnant 43 days to 1 year before death
Not pregnant, but pregnant within 42 days of death
Unknown if pregnant within the past year

Jennifer JamesFebruary 3, 2020February 3, 2020Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, Women

Woman Dies From Pregnancy-Related Complications After Waiting Hours in Emergency Room

You have probably heard the story of Tashonna Ward, the 25-year-old Milwaukee woman who recently spent hours in the emergency room due to shortness of breath and died after waiting too long. Ward was told that she would spend between two to six hours in wait time at the ER according to distressing posts on her Facebook page. Preliminary tests were performed on Ward and showed she had cardiomegaly, an enlarged heart, but she was never admitted despite having chest pains and tightness of breath.

After waiting 2 hours and 29 minutes in the ER, Tashonna Ward and her sister decided to go to urgent care. She never made it. She passed out en route and collapsed and died in the urgent care parking lot. The cause of death: hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

While many reports mentioned the emergency room wait times that led to Ward’s death, a few have reported that she developed cardiomegaly due to pregnancy complications from a miscarriage in March of 2019. In fact, the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Report states that the “decedent did develop cardiomegaly during pregnancy.”

“decedent did develop cardiomegaly during pregnancy.”
Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Report from January 14, 2020

Jennifer JamesJanuary 21, 2020Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal mortality

Vice Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris on Successful Black Maternal Health Outcomes

It has been a historic week with the announcement of Kamala D. Harris as the first black woman nominee for vice president. Pundits and political experts alike will, without doubt, parse through her record from her time working as DA of San Francisco and Attorney General of California as well as serving in the United States Senate. One thing is clear: Senator Harris has worked tirelessly on maternal health issues as it pertains to black women who are three times more likely than white women to die due to pregnancy and delivery complications.

Harris joined forces with Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL) and Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) to introduce the Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a series of nine bills that take racial disparities out of the maternal health outcomes, funds communty-based maternal health organizations, improve data collection, and invests in digital health tools among other pertinent issues.

In February of this year, Harris convened a Black Maternal Health Roundtable where women recounted their experiences with health care providers during their pregnancies and experts discussed racial disparities in maternal health care.

Courtesy of Office of Kamala D. Harris, US Senator for California

Jennifer JamesJanuary 13, 2020December 22, 20211 Comment

Blog, featured, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality

9 Maternal Health Stories Worth Reading This Weekend

Now that 2020 is in full swing I decided to catch up on the many maternal health and mortality articles that were published during the holiday season. There has been a lot of stellar reporting that you might have missed. I did. Here is a compilation of some of the articles I found the most compelling starting with a wrap-up post, 7 things I learned from spending a year reporting on mothers in Alabama, by Anna Claire Volle about the excellent year-long reporting she did on mothers in Alabama. I particularly liked

Black Maternal Health

[Self] Congresswoman Alma Adams on Why She Co-Founded the Black Maternal Health Caucus: Alma Adams is the congresswoman for my district. I am proud of the bi-partisan work she has been doing to help curb black maternal mortality. In this interview in Self’s Black Maternal Health series, Adams talks about the reasons why she is a co-founder of the Black Maternal Health Caucus.

[NBC News] ‘Extremely alarming’: New report addresses maternal mortality in the U.S.: Taraneh Shirazian, director of Global Women’s Health at NYU’s College of Global Public Health and president of Saving Mothers discusses on Morning Joe how maternal mortality has decreased globally, but in the United States maternal deaths have increased particularly for black moms.

[The Hill] Reproductive revolution: Ending black maternal health inequities in 2020: Tracey Lewis-Elligan, an associate professor & chair of Sociology at DePaul University, details the ways in which black mortality can be decreased starting this year. She highlights some of the work of doulas and midwives in the fight against black maternal mortality.

Jennifer JamesJanuary 4, 2020Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality

5 Things to Know About Maternal Health This Week

The CDC released a new report late last week, Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy-Related Deaths — United States, 2007–2016, that reiterates the maternal mortality disparity between black mothers and American Indian/Alaska Native women and white, Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander women. The numbers now seem worse than we originally thought. For example, black women who are college educated die in larger numbers than white women with less than a high school diploma. And, even in states where overall maternal mortality is low, black women still die in larger numbers.

In addition, the CDC acknowledges that “black women experience earlier deterioration of health because of the cumulative impact of exposure to psychosocial, economic, and environmental stressors.” In other words, a contributor to maternal death rates among black women is structural racism in healthcare settings.

Jennifer JamesSeptember 13, 2019Leave a comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality, Women

Joint Commission Creates New Standards of Care to Curb Maternal Mortality

One of the leading causes of maternal mortality in the United States is hemorrhaging. In fact, according to the CDC hemorrhaging accounts for 11.2% of pregnancy-related deaths. Based on these increasing numbers since 1986 the Joint Commission, the country’s leading accreditation organization for hospitals, has created 13 new standards for perinatal safety for hospitals to properly care for women who hemorrhage during or after delivery. These standards were designed specifically to prevent, recognize and treat, as well as evaluate patients for transfer to critical care for not only hemorrhage but also severe hypertension/preeclampsia.

Jennifer JamesAugust 30, 20191 Comment

Blog, featured, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, maternal morbidity, maternal mortality

Congressional Black Maternal Health Caucus Launches on Capitol Hill

On Tuesday the first congressional caucus on black maternal health launched on Capitol Hill. Led by Democrat congresswomen Rep. Alma Adams (D-NC) and freshman Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Il.) the caucus’s mission is to ensure black women are not dying senselessly during or after childbirth

As has been noted here many times before black women experience maternal mortality rates four times higher than white mothers no matter black women’s socioeconomic status or even the level of education achieved. In general, the United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country. Black women fare the worst.

Continue reading “Congressional Black Maternal Health Caucus Launches on Capitol Hill”

Jennifer JamesApril 11, 2019April 15, 20191 Comment

Blog, Maternal Health, Maternal Health in the US, newborn health, newborns, Unites States

A Pregnancy Series You Can Really Binge on Facebook Watch

After recently receiving a press release about a pregnancy docuseries on Facebook Watch I have been hooked! As a maternal health advocate, it takes a lot to stop me in my tracks, but 9 Months With Courteney Cox has really opened my eyes on the realities of pregnancy in America. After all, it has been twenty years since I had my last child, so things have … Continue reading A Pregnancy Series You Can Really Binge on Facebook Watch

Jennifer JamesMarch 27, 2019Leave a comment