Black maternal health on the minds of everyone

DR. MARGARET LARKINS-PETTIGREW, SPEAKING AT THE KIMPTON HOTEL MONACO DURING THE BLACK MATERNAL HEALTH SUMMIT IN PITTSBURGH IN APRIL 2025. (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)

Three-day event held in Pittsburgh, April 14-16

Black maternal health is finally getting some of the spotlight.

Especially when the statistics that come with Black maternal health ar­en’t good, and need to be put on front street.

Black women in the U.S. are three times as likely to die from pregnancy-relat­ed complications as White women, regardless of their income or education, ac­cording to data from the Centers for Disease Con­trol and Prevention. It doesn’t matter the year—2019, 2020, or 2023—the figures basically read the same.

Pick a year. 2021. Black women had a maternal mortality rate of 69.9 per 100,000 live births, almost three times the rate of White women (26.6).

MARCIA PERRY DIX

The issue is so real. So palpable. In the Wash­ington, D.C., area, a Black woman, a college graduate, named Arika Trim, was overly excit­ed when she learned she was pregnant. Trim, who had previously worked for former First Lady Mi­chelle Obama among oth­er prominent positions, was readying for her first child in 2020. She had to have an emergency C-Sec­tion in June 2020, and her first child was born. Seven days later, Trim died of pregnancy complications.

ANJELICA SANDERS, YUMENO YOUNG

The Arika Trim Foun­dation was started in her memory. Its mission is to champion Black maternal health “by delivering post­partum care services at home, educating mothers on postpartum warning signs, and collaborating with medical profession­als and organizations for timely and safe interven­tions.”

Black Maternal Health Week is now celebrated throughout the country in mid-April. For 2025, it was celebrated from April 11-17. In Pittsburgh, there was a three-day conference on Black ma­ternal health, held, April 14-16, at the Kimpton Hotel Monaco, Downtown, and Acrisure Stadium. A press conference was also held near the steps of the City-County Build­ing, Downtown, April 15. The press conference, and much of the three-day con­ference, was led by state Rep. La’Tasha D. Mayes, of the 24th House District. She’s part of the PA Black Maternal Health Caucus.

STATE REP. LATASHA D. MAYES, STEPHAN ETIENNE, STATE REP. GINA H. CURRY, DARA MENDEZ (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)

Representative Mayes said during her opening remarks that 93.5 per­cent of pregnancy-related deaths in Pennsylvania were labeled as “prevent­able.”

“In Western Pennsylva­nia, we have the power to change the trajectory of maternal mortality and morbidity, not only for this region, but for the en­tire commonwealth,” Rep. Mayes said.

“We cannot fix a prob­lem if we cannot name it,” added Pa.’s Second Lady, Blayre Holmes Davis, a Black woman and wife of the first Black Lt. Gov­ernor in the state’s his­tory, Austin Davis. “But the facts and problems are crystal clear. Black women in Pennsylvania are two times more like­ly to die during pregnan­cy, childbirth or first-year postpartum…these are real people’s lives we’re talking about.”

As more speakers took to the microphone, Dr. Margaret Larkins-Petti­grew of Allegheny Health Network revealed that many organizations, along with the city’s leading health systems, UPMC and Highmark (who of­tentimes don’t see eye to eye on things), have come together in town to start “First Steps and Beyond.” The initiative’s goal is to decrease infant mortality rates, as well as decrease the rate of maternal mor­tality.

STATE REPS. LATASHA D. MAYES AND GINA H. CURRY

The initiative’s execu­tive committee includes representatives from the Allegheny County Health Department, AHN, Faith-Based Neighborhood Re­silience Project, the City of Pittsburgh Mayor’s Office, The Midwife Center, The Jewish Healthcare Foun­dation, the local Federally Qualified Health Centers, UPMC, the University of Pittsburgh and Women for Healthy Environment.

Other partners on the project include Healthy Start Pittsburgh, Ameri­can Heart Association and the MAYA Organization, among others.

“We know that the po­litical determinants of health result in the social determinants of life,” Dr. Larkins-Pettigrew said on April 15 at the press conference, Downtown. “We are part of the move­ment here in the City of Pittsburgh, to continue to change the outcomes of Black women and all wom­en.”

In 2024, Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Emmai Alaqui­va produced and directed a documentary entitled “The Ebony Canal,” which followed the lives of four Black women and their pregnancies. In the U.S., more than twice as many Black babies die before their first birthday than White babies. That statis­tic holds true in Pennsyl­vania, where the infant mortality for Black babies in 2020 was 10.9 per 1,000 live births.

The message is clear— Black maternal health is a serious issue. And it’s go­ing to be talked about and tackled.

JAMARAH AMANI, WITH THE NATIONAL BLACK MIDWIVES

“The rates for maternal mortality are going down for every other group of women and moms, but has gone up almost 30 percent for Black moms and birth­ing people,” Rep. Mayes said.

In addition to the press conference, topics that were discussed during sessions at Acrisure and the Kimpton included “The Power of Dads in Black Maternal Health,” “Tech and Black Maternal Health,” and “Midwifery Modernization and Mater­nal Health Deserts.”

But at the press confer­ence, where most of the local television stations had their cameras rolling, no one at the mic bit their tongue. Blayre Holmes Da­vis, the aforementioned Pa. Second Lady, boasted that 2025 was the third year that the (Governor) Shap­iro/Davis Administration acknowledged Black Ma­ternal Health Week across the state.

“No matter what happens in Washington, no matter what decrees come down from the White House, this administration has and will continue to make sure that Black Maternal Health is a top priority,” Blayre Holmes Davis said, “because we see, we value, we trust and we believe Black women in this com­munity.”

And as for Charles John­son, he’s going to shout about Black maternal health as loud as his vocal chords will allow. In 2016, his wife, Kira, died follow­ing the birth of their second child. She died hours after a C-Section was performed at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She died from some 10 hours of internal hemorrhaging, “despite adamant pleas for help from medical pro­fessionals by her husband and loved ones,” accord­ing to Johnson’s website, 4kira4moms.com.

He traveled to Pittsburgh to be part of the Black Maternal Health Week three-day summit. Repre­sentative Mayes said there was no one better to fight against the rise in Black maternal mortality than Johnson, who is recognized across the nation.

AJANI ZANAYA

“I’m not here to tell you what I think, I’m here to tell you what I know,” Johnson said. “…There is no data that can quanti­fy what it’s like to tell an 18-month old child that his mommy is never coming home.”

Johnson added: “These mothers are so much more than just points on somebody’s graph. These are precious mothers that we’re losing.”

MARIMBA MILLIONES