Hello. Thanks for joining us today. I'm Dr. Wanda Barfield, Director of CDC's Division
of Reproductive Health and I'm pleased to be here and speak with Allyson Felix
U.S. Track and Field star and Olympic Athlete and proud mother of an adorable little girl.
Hi. Thank you so much Dr. Wanda.
So as a mom myself I understand that some of the challenges that can come with pregnancy.
I actually had a complication myself and went into pre-term labor at about 28 weeks and I think that
we both feel very fortunate that we've been able to use our voices to make people aware of the
risks that are associated with pregnancy and the importance of recognizing those warning signs.
You've done so much wonderful work promoting maternal health and raising the awareness
of racial disparities that exist among women of color and I'd just love to talk a little
bit about your story and why maternal health is so important to you particularly for black
women. And I was wondering if you could maybe share a little bit about your experience with
preeclampsia? Yeah for me you know I had a really great pregnancy. You know being an athlete
and knowing that I was coming back to train I um exercised throughout my pregnancy. I felt strong.
I felt great and um I felt you know really blessed to do well. And then at 32 weeks I went in for
you know very routine appointment and that's when I was immediately sent to the hospital for further
testing and later admitted. And that's when I found out that I was suffering from preeclampsia
and things moved very quickly, very fast. Um and we got into a really scary situation
and I think just going through all of that and being able to come out on the other side of it
I feel so blessed and so fortunate. Um but as I look back through those really terrifying
moments for myself and my family my eyes were just open to a whole other world. And I had I
think I knew um the statistics that I knew you know what some black women had faced but I didn't
know how at risk i was. You know knowing that I'm a professional athlete and that I'm healthy and
you know I've lived all of my life you know doing all of the things to keep my body healthy.
I never imagined that I would be in this situation and so it was completely um it was completely a
situation I just never would have thought that I would have been in. And so um going through all
that it just made me have a heart you know for my sisters and um just want to bring awareness. And
I just knew you know the things that could have helped me. If there's any small thing I could do
to help you know the next woman um facing that then I definitely wanted to do that.
Well thank you so much for sharing allyson. Just uh to share with everyone um for those of
you who may not be familiar with preeclampsia. preeclampsia is a hot is high blood pressure
and signs of liver and kidney failure um that include protein in the urine and can
even occur with very serious complications and it usually occurs with women after the 20th week of
pregnancy. And it can affect both the mother as well as the unborn baby and early recognition of
preeclampsia is so important and we're so happy that you and your daughter had the opportunity
to um be detected early and that you're both surviving and thriving. And I really appreciate
what you're saying in terms of this being a bit of a surprise to you and the Hear Her campaign
is really an opportunity to encourage women to speak up when they have those concerns
because there are circumstances in which women do have concerns and they aren't unable to be heard.
And so we want to raise awareness about the very serious warning signs that can occur
related to pregnancy. And we also know that unfortunately there are too many women
who die each year from problems due to pregnancy related complications
and um it really doesn't have to be this way. And these problems can occur even up to a year
after pregnancy. That's something that maybe people don't quite understand and it's really
important for pregnant women and new moms to be able to um have support and be heard
not only from friends and family but also from health care providers. And for me you know as a
mom of two I feel really fortunate. I feel really blessed that I have a great support network. you
know I have my husband I have extended family. We have what we call our you know our network. Can
you talk a little bit about your support systems and how that's helped you during this time?
Yeah I feel really blessed as well you know that I have had really strong support from my family
from my partner. And even you know looking back at going through such a scary situation in giving
birth you know having my partner there to make some of those decisions for me. You know that I
didn't really understand how serious things were. And being able to lean on someone else
and um you know make some of those deciding factors is so important. I think for a lot of
women even going into um thinking about what type of delivery they are going to have I think we all
well I know for myself I you know I wanted this beautiful natural birth. And I imagined what it
would be like and I think I wish I would have been more open and understood that you know
birth can go in a number of different directions. And you have to kind of be prepared for what that
may come and I think it would be helpful to have kind of a plan in place. And you know something
if everything goes south you know this is the person who's going to be right here with me and
um to be helping me. And also just understanding the resources that are available and
you know maybe maybe that looks like having a doula or you know some of these um these ways
that we can educate ourselves to be prepared um and to be best equipped for the situation.
So um you know the next thing I want to talk about a little bit and you know I want to thank you now
just for emphasizing how it's important that everyone really um help pregnant and postpartum
women in terms of pregnancy complications. But one issue in particular is racial disparities
and I was just wondering if you can tell us why particularly as a black woman you feel
so passionate about improving maternal health in our country particularly for black women. Yes
for black women um just the studies that have been done and what we're understanding is that
many times black women's pain is not um perceived as real and we're not heard you
know as much as uh other women. And I think a lot of times you know you go into a doctor's office
and you can be intimidated. You know obviously they are a medical professional. This is their
field. They are experts and it can feel like you know if you raise a concern and it's not heard
it's hard to keep pushing. Um but you have to do that you know. You have to be prepared to advocate
for yourself and I think it's very unfortunate that a lot of times there is this implicit bias in
the medical field. But it is a reality and we have to be ready for that. And so um I think just the
awareness of you know knowing what signs to look for and knowing that we are automatically we're at
risk. And so we have to understand that and if something doesn't feel right you have to bring
it to you know bring it to the forefront and not let go of that. And I just think back you know to
finding out that I was pregnant and you know not being not really paying attention that I was at
risk or not knowing what to look for. And you know what is out of the ordinary. So I think those are
things that I want you know all women to know but particularly black women who are
at a greater risk. Yes. You know what you're saying is really important particularly since
we know that factors that might typically protect um don't necessarily protect black women. So for
example having a higher education um our our higher socioeconomic status does not necessarily
seem to make a difference for black women. In fact black women with a college degree still
have higher rates of pregnancy related deaths than white women without a high school education.
And so we know that there are these serious differences and you know we may say well why is
this and we need to first do better as a society in terms of really addressing racial disparities
in pregnancy-related deaths and really take some real steps. We also know that these differences
are not genetic. I mean that there isn't anything inherent in the DNA of black women that put them
at increased risk but what we do know is that there are factors that affect the environments
in which we are born, where we live, where we play, where we learn, and where we age. And
these are social determinants that can either affect us positively or affect us negatively.
And we really need to understand that there are also other factors like the variation in
quality of care, factors in terms of the burden of chronic disease as well as issues such as racism,
discrimination. As you mentioned implicit bias and these really do affect um these differences. Yeah
so um allyson you know I really appreciate you being here today. And I know that you're really
very busy training for the upcoming Olympic Games and we just want to wish you all the best of luck
and just to wrap up. You know what messages would you have for pregnant women and new moms and those
that support them? Yeah well I just thank you for having me to talk about such an important um issue
and I guess my message to you know to new moms expecting moms um is just to be aware you know.
I think to know signs to look for and to speak up you know. Not to be intimidated but um to always
bring forth when there is an issue when something doesn't feel right and to make yourself um heard.
And sometimes that can take more effort you know than we would like. But it is so important and it
can really be the difference you know. In my whole situation I feel so blessed to have walked out of
the hospital and to have my daughter with me. And I know so many um women who haven't been able to
do the same. You know, surviving. Uh partners and children you know without um their mothers and you
know I just want us all to be able to do better. So that that won't be the case moving forward.
Well Allyson I just want to thank you again so much for your time. I want to emphasize that
everyone has a role to play in improving maternal health and preventing pregnancy related deaths
and recognizing the important maternal warning signs. Getting accurate and timely diagnoses
and quality care can really save lives and I just want to tell the audience to please visit
www.cdc.gov/hearher to learn more. Thanks everyone and thank you Allyson. Of course, thank you.