Opinion: Black mothers of our commonwealth deserve better

When I became a mother of twin boys in Virginia, joy and fear walked hand in hand. The fear wasn’t irrational. The fear was rooted in the data, in the history, and in the lived experiences of Black women across the commonwealth. In Virginia, Black women are more than twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. That isn’t just a statistic. It’s a crisis. 

And for Black mothers like me, it’s personal. 

The disparities mirror national trends and here in Virginia, they are compounded by longstanding inequalities in our healthcare system and the persistent shadow of systemic racism. This isn’t about biology, it’s about bias – racial bias that shows up in how health care is delivered, how concerns and symptoms are often dismissed and how lies are valued. 

According to the Virginia Department of Health’s maternal mortality review annual report, the pregnancy associated death rate decreased from 86.6 per 100,000 live births in 2020 to 66.9 in 2021. However, Black women continue to experience higher rates of pregnancy associated deaths compared to their white counterparts. The disparities between Black and white maternal mortality rates underscores the need for continued efforts to address systemic inequities in healthcare access across our commonwealth. 

In recent years, the Virginia General Assembly has taken steps in the right direction. Virginia Democrats voted to extend Medicaid coverage for new mothers from 60 days to 12 months postpartum. That move matters because it allows mothers more time to access care, monitor complications, and recover. And the formation of the Virginia Maternal Mortality Review Team is a necessary step toward understanding the causes behind these deaths. 

But more must be done. 

We need accountability. Hospitals and providers should be required to track maternal outcomes by race and publicly report that data. Implicit bias training should be mandatory across healthcare systems, not as a box to check, but as an ongoing commitment to equitable care. 

Virginia is the birthplace of American democracy but that promise has always come unequally. If we want to move toward a future that truly values life, then we must fight for the lives of Black mothers. Because every time a mother doesn’t come home from the hospital, a family is forever changed. Every preventable death is a moral failure.

Being a Black mother in Virginia should not mean walking through pregnancy with prayer and fear. It should mean walking with joy, confidence, and the full support of a healthcare system and medical team that sees us, hears us, cares for us and honors us. 

The crisis is real – but so is our resolve and our ability to have the power to advocate, to organize and to demand better. Our lives, and the lives of our children depend on it.