Every day, Anari asks where her mom is and when she will return. "She is only two and a half years old, she does not understand and she is sometimes impatient, explains Shawnee, her grandmother. I know my daughter would take her back, ask her to say thank you, please. But I have no heart for that. "
Shawnee Benton lost his daughter Shamony on October 6. At 30, the young woman died two weeks after giving birth to her second child. A little boy named Khari.
In a associative café in the Bedford-Stuyvesant district of Brooklyn, Shawnee takes out of his bag a photo of Shamony, pregnant, with a round belly pointing under her dress with African motifs, a big smile on her face. "She was so happy to be pregnant, recalls her mom. It was a planned pregnancy, she didn't want there to be a lot of difference between her two children."
Cardiac arrest at home
If the Cesarean delivery on September 30 went well, Shamony started having breathing problems when she got home. "At first we weren't worried, she was very active and we thought she was doing too much, so quickly after Khari was born. It got better for two days and then, finally, she had after a big crisis, she lost consciousness and had a cardiac arrest at home. She was taken to hospital and twelve hours later, Shamony left us. "
Shamony died of a pulmonary embolism, one of the most common complications during and after childbirth. Like her, in the United States, 700 women die on average each year from pregnancy-related complications, according to the latest report from the American Center for Disease Control (CDC), which also estimates that 3 out of 5 deaths are preventable.
A lagging health system of which African-American women are the first victims: the risk of mortality linked to pregnancy is three times higher for black women than for white women. And in New York, the most cosmopolitan city in the country, the risk is eight times higher, according to the municipality.
Significant disparities between pregnant women
For a long time, the medical profession and the public authorities have pointed to aggravating factors such as diabetes or obesity, which affect the black community more strongly, but these pathologies are not enough to explain the glaring disparities between pregnant women. Ditto for poverty, lack of adequate health coverage or less education among African-American populations. Today, black mothers with university degrees are more likely to suffer from severe complications during pregnancy than a white woman who left school in high school, reports a 2016 New York city study.
This was the case with Shamony: a graduate of New York University, she had founded, with her companion Omari Maynard, a company for the promotion of art in everyday life, Art-fulliving. The eldest in the family, she took great care of her little sister and her brother, 15 years younger. "We are a family of artists, we dance, we sing, we play comedy, we compose. Shamony was an incredible dancer!"
Dr. Deborah Kaplan is responsible for maternal health at the New York City Hall. According to her, we must look in American history for the explanation of the disparities between the communities: "We must understand and admit that racism is permeated in the DNA of the United States. And since the founding of this country, nothing n has really changed. Including the myth that black people don't experience pain the same way. Which of course is terrible when it comes to women giving birth who complain of pain or have complications And who are not taken seriously just because of the color of their skin. "
"If it hadn't been black, it wouldn't have happened like that"
Shawnee Benton experienced this dramatically when help arrived at the home of his daughter Shamony. "I have medical knowledge and I was certain, given the symptoms, that my daughter was having a pulmonary embolism, she says. But the paramedics did not listen to me and they kept asking me if Shamony was on drugs. Still, I told them she had just had a baby. I think if she hadn't been black it wouldn't have happened like that. "
This feeling of not being taken seriously, many African-American women evoke it. 33% of them say they have been discriminated against in a doctor or in a hospital because of the color of their skin. 21% have even given up traveling to a healthcare professional again after a first traumatic experience, according to a survey conducted in 2017 by the American public radio NPR. American tennis star Serena Williams experienced it in September 2017 when she gave birth to her daughter. Breathless after a cesarean, she asked for a CT scan but no one took it seriously until the exam was finally done and a pulmonary embolism was discovered.
Racist prejudice is at the root of inappropriate behavior but also of fractures in cities, says Dr. Déborah Kaplan: "Structural racism has led to a disinvestment of public powers in the neighborhoods where African-Americans live." The implications are many: unmaintained housing, few green spaces, very limited and complicated access to healthy food and less well-funded and equipped hospitals.
"This is what may have killed Shamony," said his mother. "The ambulance took her to the nearest hospital. This hospital is one of those who do not receive money, who do not have the necessary equipment. They did what they could but I can't get out of my head that they didn't have what it takes! " If Shamony had been taken to the emergency room of a richer, whiter neighborhood, would she have survived? Shawnee burst into tears at the thought: "It doesn't make sense! She should be there, all those who died like that should be there. All those who fought for their lives in the hospital should be able to get out fit and take care of their baby. "
A budget allocated by the city of New York
New York City is aware of the problem and wants to address it. Dr. Kaplan in mind. With her teams and under the leadership of Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, she launched a plan last year to try to reduce the number of deaths. With a budget of $ 12.8 million, this plan notably includes new investments in the least endowed hospitals and combating racist prejudices among medical personnel.
It is in this context that the town hall works with a network of doulas, women who accompany and support future mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period. Chanel Porchia, herself a mother of six, is a member of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance collective and founded the association Ancient Song Doula to help women in her community. "In my career, I have witnessed a lot of scenes where women were not respected. One time, a woman was threatened to give birth to entrust her child to social services if she continued to refuse treatment which was questionable. I saw a spouse taken by hospital security because he was asking for an explanation of what we were doing to his wife. It happens to the black population of this country all the time. "
In her local in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, she receives mothers but also women who want to get involved and train in the profession of doula. "My goal is to bring knowledge and knowledge but also hope. We must trust ourselves, our body, our autonomy, our authority. It is our body."
The subject is invited in the presidential campaign
Maternal mortality in the United States, especially among black women, was part of the 2020 presidential campaign. Several Democratic candidates, including Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden, have pledged to make things happen. "Black women should not have to prepare an elaborate birth plan or spend thousands of dollars to be sure to be seen and heard in the hospital and to ensure they survive a delivery," says Elisabeth Warren, senator and candidate for the White House. "We have spent enough time observing and debating the effects of prejudice and racism in our health care system. Now is the time to demand better results," she says.
In a few days, Shawnee, Omari, Anari and Khari will meet on Shamony's birthday. She should have celebrated her 31st birthday just before Christmas. "We are going to celebrate the life she had, says Shawnee. I want to act for those who are still alive and who want to have their babies and be free. What will make the difference is prevention, education , training and awareness. I hope Shamony is not dead in vain. "
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