Why being pregnant while black can seriously damage your health | Miriam Zoila Pérez
In the US, women of color face more risks in pregnancy and childbirth than white women, and the reason for the disparity has become clear: racism
When Jessica Roach’s second daughter was born premature, at just 34 weeks and five days, Roach found herself living a statistic that she knew intimately. What began as dizzy spells, nausea and food aversion became a condition that called for bed rest; her cervix, it turned out, was dilating too early. An African American woman living in Columbus, Ohio, Roach experienced a pregnancy rife with health challenges, despite having a job as a nurse at Ohio State University and access to medical care just floors from where she worked.