Global Courant
Olympic track and field star Allyson Felix drew attention to the black maternal mortality rate following the death of teammate Tori Bowie due to childbirth complications.
“The medical community needs to do its part,” Felix wrote in an essay published by Time on Thursday. “There are so many stories of dying women that haven’t been heard. Doctors really need to hear the pain of black women.
Bowie was found dead in a Florida home on May 2.
According to an autopsy report from the Orange County Medical Examiner’s Office in Florida, Bowie died while approximately 8 months pregnant with a “well-developed fetus.” The report said there was evidence she was “undergoing childbirth (awarding)” when she died.
Members of the US women’s 4x100m relay, English Gardner, Tori Bowie, Tianna Bartoletta and Allyson Felix, celebrate their gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.Jae C. Hong / AP file
The autopsy report listed respiratory distress and eclampsia as possible complications. According to Cleveland cliniceclampsia is when a pregnant person has preeclampsia – a blood pressure disorder – gets epileptic seizures.
In her Time essay, Felix shared the diagnosis of preeclampsia she received while pregnant with her daughter Camryn in 2018. Felix has had a caesarean section 32 weeks pregnant and Camryn was born prematurely.
“I wasn’t sure if I would make it,” Felix said in the essay. “If I ever held my precious daughter.”
She said she was unaware of the risks she was taking.
“About five days before I gave birth to Camryn, I had Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I said my feet were swollen. As we sat around the table, the women shared their pregnancy experiences. My cousin said she also had swollen feet. My mom didn’t,” Felix said. “Not once did anyone say, ‘Oh, well, that’s one of the indicators of preeclampsia.’ None of us knew. When I got pregnant, my doctor didn’t tell me, “These are things to watch out for during your pregnancy because you’re at a higher risk of experiencing these complications.”
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the maternal death rate for black women in 2021 — which Felix noted in her essay — was 2.6 times the rate for white women, or 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births.
In her essay, Felix tennis star Serena Williams mentioned it after delivering her daughter Olympia had an emergency cesarean section in 2017 a pulmonary embolism.
Felix also referred to Beyonce, who suffered from preeclampsia while she was pregnant with twins Rumi and Sir.
“I hate that Tori’s situation is needed to put this back on the map and get people to pay attention to it,” Felix said. “But often we need that wake-up call.”
Felix said she would very much like to have another child.
“That’s something I know for sure,” she said. “But will I be here to raise that child? That is a very real concern. And that’s a terrifying thing. This is America, in 2023, and black women are dying in childbirth. It’s absurd.”
