Harris Co. leads nation in Black maternal death rates, report shows

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- While Houston is home to the largest medical complex in the world, data in a recent report on maternal and infant health published by the Harris County Public Health indicates the region has led the country in Black maternal death rates since 2016.

The report lists a number of factors that may contribute to disproportionately poor health outcomes for Black mothers and their children.

Black women are at greater risk for conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and heart problems, which are known to complicate pregnancy. The discrepancies are partially attributed to historical inequities such as lack of access to nutritious food.

The report also found that Black women who graduated college are 60 times more likely to die during childbirth than white and Hispanic women without high school diplomas.

In 2022, Dionna Jacobs lost her second son, Hendrix, during childbirth.

She told ABC13 that when she and her partner arrived at the hospital, she was "screaming to the top of (her) lungs."

She said she knew something was wrong, explaining that the pain was not comparable to what she experienced delivering her first child.

"(Staff) would be like 'Oh, it's probably just your first baby. Oh, she's a young mom,' and I would have to keep saying, 'No, this is my second baby. No, I've actually delivered here before. This is actually my second time delivering at this hospital,'" Jacobs said, adding that her cries for help initially went unanswered by hospital staff.

"When a woman comes into an emergency room screaming, there should be an immediate call to action," she said.

Jacobs said her partner eventually dug a wheelchair out of a hospital closet himself.

"I definitely think that they just saw a young Black girl and assumed I was being overdramatic of my pain," she said. "Something in my body was like, 'You just have to push him out yourself cause clearly nobody here is going to attempt to get him out.'"

She continued, "I beared down, I pushed him out by myself, he landed on the table, nobody caught him. They didn't catch his neck, didn't do anything. They just let him lay there."

She told ABC13 that her pleas to tend to her son were waved off, and one nurse reportedly told her, "Oh no, girl, he's already gone."

She said her son's body was not moved from the table until a Black nurse walked into the room and swaddled him.

"Another African American woman saw me struggling," she said.

Doctors initially suspected Jacobs' placenta had ruptured. She says she felt like it was her fault, that her body had failed, and declined an autopsy. She would later learn her placenta was in tact.

"I did not want them to touch my son," she cried.

To this day, Jacobs still doesn't know why Hendrix died. But data shows because she is Black in Harris County, he was two to three times more likely to during or before delivery than a white child.

"We are definitely disproportionately disadvantaged. Unfortunately, in this county, we are three to four times more likely to die from childbirth than white women," Kay Matthews, founder of Shades of Blue, said.

Matthews lost her daughter, Troya, and nearly lost her own life, giving birth 11 years ago. She said she was sent home with discharge papers, her street clothes, and postpartum depression.

"I was given no resources," she explained.

Her nonprofit now serves more than 3,000 women and family members each year, offering wraparound support services ranging from no-cost psychiatry to clothing.

"It's making sure that no one has to feel what I feel," she explained. "Every time I'm doing this, I'm showing up to this building. I assure you that Troya mattered."

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