Birth can be dismal for Black women. What this hospital is doing to stop that
Brianna Mckenzie was feverish and shaking in her bed as night drew near at MLK Community Hospital.
The pregnant woman was a week and a half past her due date. She had come to the Willowbrook hospital to be induced a day beforehand and was only halfway to the needed dilation. Her mother, Francine Tomlinson, had grown anxious, knowing that fever could be a sign of an infection.
As Tomlinson worried over her daughter, obstetrician Dr. John Pinches III stepped into the room and laid out the decision before Mckenzie, explaining the trade-offs of a cesarean section or continuing with labor. She'd been given antibiotics to quash any infection and Tylenol for her fever, but Tomlinson urged her daughter to consider a C-section.
Her fears and anxiety were underscored by the unsettling statistics surrounding birth in the United States. Black women like Mckenzie have been at much higher risk of dying in pregnancy and childbirth than women of other races in the U.S. — a country where birth is already far more dangerous than in many other wealthy nations.
As Mckenzie weighed her options, Angela Sojobi, the midwife who had been tending to the 23-year-old throughout the day, sought to reassure her mother. "We will not let anything bad happen to her," Sojobi told Tomlinson, sitting down next to her. "That's why I'm here, watching her like a hawk."
Mckenzie decided to continue with her labor. Less than five hours later, she was pushing out her newborn son, surrounded by her mother, her partner and the hospital team. Sojobi coached her through each push, her tone steady and soothing: "What a strong woman. Take a breath. You're
