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A WGVU initiative in partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation using on-air programs and community events to explore issues of inclusion and equity.

The high rate of maternal mortality in Michigan

 In Michigan, black pregnant mothers are dying at three times the rate than white pregnant women, a close number to the national average of four times, according to the CDC. 

Chris Fussman who works as an epidemiologist at the Michigan Department of Health and human Services says the reasons black women in Michigan are more likely to die during pregnancy than white women is due to the kind of healthcare they have access to.  

“I still think it has a lot obviously a lot to do with health equity, social determinants of health, their access to care during pregnancy,.” 

Jazz Mckinney, a resident of Grand Rapids, says that they were almost one of these deaths when McKinney received the diagnosis of hyperemesis gravidarum. 

“Essentially what that is, is very, very severe morning sickness. So I experienced all day morning sickness from four weeks pregnant until 36 weeks pregnant and then it came back during labor.” 

When McKinney realized that the morning sickness wasn’t going away, and they were vomiting up to six times per day they decided to visit the hospital to avoid dehydration and there they were met with skepticism from care providers. 

“And here you have this authority figure telling you that you should basically suck it up and that you can’t feel pain or stress.” 

McKinney doesn’t think it was a malicious or intentional attempt from the care providers to ignore the pain they were feeling, but that there is a stigma from care providers about black women. 

“There is this stigma, and I actually had a nurse say this, but there is this stigma that for some reason that Black women can actually handle a lot more pain or stress than everybody else.” 

Today, McKinney’s daughter is four years old and doing well, but McKinney doesn’t think they don’t ever want to go through a pregnancy again. 

Michelle Jokisch Polo, WGVU News.