Tori Bowie died from complications in childbirth

[minsmum]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/athletics/65887510 she was only 32

How awful.

That's so sad.

How very sad that she was found alone, eight months pregnant, and dead. You wouldn’t think a well-known pregnant woman who must have friends and family could disappear from people’s consciousness for several day.

So sad, scary that they hadn’t picked up the pre-eclampsia indicators and move her to hospital sooner, had not to wonder how much her being black led to the lack of care by medical professionals. Pre-eclampsia is very hard to detect yourself, you’re just aware of gradually feeling worse and worse but it’s hard to define in what way. You are dependent on good antenatal care picking it up and monitoring you carefully.

I’m sure I’ve read that statistically minority groups get worse outcomes during pregnancy due to doctors and nurses not listening/believing them when they report issues. She may very well have approached medical staff with health concerns and not received the attention she needed.

Oh, god, that's awful.

RIP, poor woman.

An awful story, and this paragraph is really making me rage

"It added possible complications Bowie had included respiratory distress and eclampsia - when a person develops seizures, or convulsions, during pregnancy."

A person. What type of person might that be then?

That poor woman, and poor baby. So many questions, which are both absolutely none of our business in terms of her life as an individual, but given the stark inequalities existing in maternity care and outcomes for WOC need answering on a population level.

Oh my gosh. This is just awful.

Agree with this, it can't be ignored.

That poor woman. It doesn't bear thinking about.

This report makes for sobering ready. Black women are 3 times more likely to die in pregnancy in the US than white women (the US already has the worst mortality rate for all women in pregnancy in the western world).

Maternal Death Among U.S. Black Women | PRB

Of course the UK mortality rate for black mothers is nothing to be proud of, with black women 4 times more likely to die than a white woman.

End racial disparities in maternal deaths - MPs - BBC News

To be clear, it is still far safer to be pregnant in the UK with the death rate for black mothers at 10.47 in 100,000 in the UK (2018-2020) and in the US in 2021 it was a scandalous 69.9 per 100,000.

This. We don't know what happened to this individual. It might have been something unexpected (e.g. pulmonary embolus) or even something unrelated to the pregnancy.

What we do know is that outcomes for black women in both the US and UK are poor.

Yes.

The strange thing is that I have only met 2 women who developed pre eclampsia and both were very sporty, both were amateur runners. I realize this is only anecdotal but wonder if this makes any difference. They both carried on running quite late into pregnancy.
And yes, I find it horrific that a woman can go into labour and die alone in one of the richest countries.

I had pre eclampsia, not a runner. Its not relevant.

Those are shocking statistics.

Black women are most likely to get preclampsia and least likely to be treated for it or have their symptoms taken seriously. So sad.

I don't think there is any known association with exertion, but it's impossible to rule out. Pre-eclampsia is mind-bogglingly complicated, and new information is emerging all the time. For example, it is coming to be understood that the patho-physiology of pre-eclampsia from early pregnancy is different from late onset.

What I would say is that we know that, over all, keeping active in pregnancy is beneficial. The benefits of continuing exercise hugely outweigh the risks for 99% of women. No one who is pregnant should be deterred from continuing exercise by this tragedy.

No for black and Indian people preclampsia is often genetic. Unfortunately the NHS doesn’t recognise several gene variants ‘officially’ so you often have to fight for heparin / aspirin. We also get something called ‘invisible’ or ‘sleeping’ preclampsia - which is what I got. I basically did everything right, took all the blood thinners, but the placenta still failed. Luckily for me I had fought tooth and nail for an induction and so it was identified otherwise my son would have died

@Wenfy I am so sorry you had to fight to get basic decent care. So glad to read your son was ok. Just shocked to read this.

Well yes exactly!

You're correct, this is very real. Women of colour tend to receive worse gynaecological and obstetric care, thus resulting in higher rate of complications and mortality. It's very very disturbing!
It dates back to a period where they believed the harder women worked, the more tolerant she was of pain. For instance women who were upper class and enjoyed the finer things in life were more "fragile" and "delicate" therefore would experience pain in a more intense way. However women of colour were usually slaves, and doing back breaking work in the field so they were more "hardy" and so could manage pain better. And just like most issues to do with women, society still hasn't been able to shake this stigma!

I got pre-eclampsia, it’s not had anything like enough research like lots of medical conditions that only affect women

I’m not a runner.

It’s scary and dangerous, I was lucky with a gp and antenatal service that was already monitoring me well.

I wonder if anyone is campaigning to non-white pregnant people in the UK that they are statistically likely to get worse care and teach/help them and their birthing partners to better advocate for themselves.

I was disgusted when I found out how much worse their outcomes are, I was past child bearing age but it would have made me genuinely frightened to be black and pregnant in this country!!