Black Maternal Health Crisis, COVID-19, and the Crisis of Care

Abstract

Feminist Studies 46, no. 3. © 2020 by Feminist Studies, Inc. 603 Shaneda Destine, Jazzmine Brooks, and Christopher Rogers Black Maternal Health Crisis, COVID-19, and the Crisis of Care The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) projects that COVID19 will have a “calamitous impact on women’s health.”1 With the United States now the epicenter of the global COVID-19 pandemic, the disproportionate infection and death rates experienced by its most vulnerable people—Black mothers and Black birthing parents—constitutes a crisis of care.2 In this essay, we will outline this crisis of care for Black mothers and Black birthing parents during the pandemic and offer activist-centered approaches to ameliorating their conditions using a critical intersectional feminist lens. A critical intersectional feminist approach sees the present crisis as embedded in an ongoing capitalist dynamic in which the medical industry harms countless Black birthing parents. First, we will outline the parameters of the Black maternal health crisis as it has been exacerbated by COVID-19. Then, we will detail challenges for Black essential workers who are pregnant or are trying to conceive by situating the US response to the pandemic within the larger project of the capitalist drive for profit over humanity. Last, we will suggest immediate and long-term solutions promulgated by reproductive justice advocates and activists in 1. United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), “New UNFPA Projections Predict Calamitous Impact on Women’s Health as COVID-19 Pandemic Continues,” April 28, 2020, https://www.unfpa.org/press/new-unfpa-projections-predictcalamitous -impact-womens-health-covid-19-pandemic-continues. 2. Movement for Black Lives, “National Demands for COVID-19,” 2020, https:// m4bl.org/covid-19-platform. 604 Shaneda Destine, Jazzmine Brooks, and Christopher Rogers the Movement for Black Lives and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, who use a feminist lens to address the black maternal health crisis. The Parameters of the Black Maternal Health Crisis The Black maternal health crisis is most apparent in the most diverse metropolis of the United States, New York City—where African American women are eight times more likely to die from childbirth than non-Hispanic white women irrespective of socioeconomic status and education.3 Amber Isaac’s case is an instructive example of the neglect Black women are facing in healthcare during this global pandemic. In April 2020, Isaac, a twenty-six-year-old Black woman, died during childbirth due to complications from a condition that was ignored during telehealth visits. Isaac had earlier raised complaints related to what turned out to be her low blood platelet count. However, she was denied her request for an in-person appointment. By the time blood work was finally done that confirmed her condition, she had to be admitted to the hospital a month before her due date to induce labor, which then led to an emergency caesarean section.4 Her inadequate care was compounded by the low supply of blood during the pandemic, which resulted in Isaac being unable to get the infusion of platelets she needed during delivery . Had her earlier complaints been heeded, this situation could have been prevented.5 Her heart stopped as she gave birth to her son, Elias, unaccompanied by her partner due to COVID-19 restrictions. Although the COVID-19 safety precautions presented barriers to her receiving 3. “De Blasio Administration Launches Comprehensive Plan to Reduce Maternal Deaths and Life-Threatening Complications from Childbirth Among Women of Color,” July 20, 2018, https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor /news/365-18/de-blasio-administration-launches-comprehensive-plan-reduce -maternal-deaths-life-threatening. 4. Ese Olumhense, “A Pregnant Woman Tweeted Concerns about a Bronx Hospital : She Died Days Later,” The City, April 27, 2020, https://www.thecity.nyc /health/2020/4/27/21247056/a-pregnant-woman-tweeted-concerns-abouta -bronx-hospital-she-died-days-later. 5. “A New York Mother Dies after Raising Alarm on Hospital Neglect,” The Guardian, May 2, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/may/02 /amber-rose-isaac-new-york-childbirth-death. Shaneda Destine, Jazzmine Brooks, and Christopher Rogers 605 adequate care, it was ultimately the racist disregard of Isaac’s complaints that contributed to her death.6 Before the COVID...