“I’m literally dying,” expectant mother Lashonda Hazard wrote in response to a Facebook post asking how she was feeling and whether doctors had been able to figure out and treat the source of her abdominal pain.
That was the last thing she said on social media before she and her unborn child passed away.
Photo Credit: Facebook
Lashonda was a healthy pregnant 27-year-old when she started to complain of stomach pain. She visited Women & Infant Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, but expressed that the staff had “only checked the baby” – she felt they weren’t taking what she described as “excruciating pain” seriously.
Photo Credit: Facebook
The sad truth of the matter is that in the United States, black mothers and their babies are vulnerable and dying from medical complications at a rate two to three times higher than white women with the same or similar complications.
Photo Credit: Facebook
In fact, the highish mortality rate among pregnant and postpartum mothers in America is skewed significantly by the rate at which we allow black mothers to die – the World Health Organization estimates their mortality rate is equal to mothers in Mexico and Uzbekistan.
An open letter on Facebook honors Lashonda Hazard. It’s titled “We Believe Black Women” and calls for justice and action on behalf of black American mothers.
“In a world that does not believe or trust black women, the level of risk has immeasurable consequences and the implications for quality of care and quality of life are urgent.”
Photo Credit: Facebook
It is imperative that we, as a country, advocate for black maternal and infant health before having a baby as a black women becomes an even more deadly proposition. We don’t want any more Lashonda Hazards, lost along with their babies for no reason other than that she wasn’t taken seriously. She died because she was ignored.
There is a GoFundMe page set up if you’d like to donate.
