amna: A recent study found a
disturbing rise in the number of
deaths among pregnant women and
new mothers during the pandemic.
And not just because of
complications from pregnancy and
childbirth.
The report by the journal of the
American medical association
found that from 2019 to 2020,
there were 4,535 deaths among
pregnant women and new mothers.
That was up from 1,588 deaths
pre-pandemic.
Native American women faced the
greatest risk by far during this
period.
They were three and a half times
more likely to die than white
women.
To better understand what's
driving this increase, I
recently spoke with Jessica
whitehawk, the founder of the
ttawaxt birth justice center on
the yakama nation reservation in
Washington state.
Welcome to the newshour.
Thank you for joining us.
Let's begin with knowing what
you know about maternal care for
native women going into the
pandemic.
Did you expect to see these
kinds of increases?
Jessica: Yes.
When we went into the pandemic,
our team knew there was going to
be a lot of issues that were
going to be regaled and
intensified.
But we did not quite understand
until it started -- until we
started seeing now what it was
going to be.
But we did anticipated.
Amna: Tell me why a pair why did
you anticipate that increase
going in?
Jessica: For many years, and
historically, we have had high
infant and maternal -- maternity
mortality rates.
We know in general that the
populations that are already
struggling were going to
struggle even more in the
pandemic.
That was a fear we had when the
pandemic began.
Amna: Tell us about those
struggles.
What does prenatal and postnatal
care look like for most of the
women you serve?
Jessica: For most of the women
we serve, they are experiencing
health care through federally
qualified health care systems,
which have very limited office
visit time, and the care that is
provided is subpar.
During a prenatal visit, they
often only had three to seven
minutes per visit which is not
enough time to be able to ask
questions and understand what is
going on with your body, or even
for a doctor to understand what
complications or what additional
things are needed beyond
prenatal care.
Amna: I found it interesting in
the report, they found pregnant
and recently pregnant black
women also faced an increased
risk.
Their odds of death were doubled
those of white women.
When you look back to the
pandemic, it really laid bare a
lot of the structural racism
that exists in our health care
system.
Did you see that among the
population of native women you
serve as well?
Jessica: Absolutely.
There was structural racism
there before.
As the pandemic began, it really
opened those cracks in a way
that revealed numbers that
cannot be ignored.
Amna: We know pregnancy is a
time of enormous stress on the
body, but there were all of
these other causes of death not
linked to pregnancy or
complications from that itself.
Native women five times as
likely to die in car accidents
during or after their pregnancy,
three times as likely to die of
drug overdoses or homicide, four
times as likely to die by
suicide.
Your role trying to support
these women, where do you begin,
how do you address all of this?
Jessica: A lot of reasons why
this is happening is very
historical.
Violence against native American
women has taken place since the
inception of America.
This has not changed over time.
We still have high missing and
murdered indigenous people
rates, we are still in a battle
with this type of violence.
What our organization does, and
what we believe are the values,
is that when you rebuild
community and support for each
other and start getting access
to high-quality care, support
through other women, support
through culture, support through
language and rebuilding our
nationhood, that that is the way
that we want to address all of
these members and the things
that we are seeing.
Amna: As you know, maternal
health is a mix of social
factors, economic factors, but
it is widely seen as a key
indicator in overall social
well-being.
When you look at these latest
numbers, what does that say to
you about that?
Jessica: It's scary.
I feel that it is absolutely our
life givers that are the people
that determine the foundation
for our future.
As we continue to build the
systems that are grounded in
community, and continue to
support through culture and
healing, that these numbers will
improve.
But this is going to take a long
time to fix.
It has taken a long time to get
here, and it is going to take a
long time to fix.
Amna: That is Jessica white hawk
of the ttawaxt birth justice
center in Jessica state --
Washington state.
Thank you for your time.
Jessica: Thank you.