This letter features reporting from Perils of Pregnancy: Black Maternal Mortality by Herbert L. White and Kylie Marsh

Dear Congressman Clyburn,

I am a homeschooled, sixth grade constituent at the Ubuntu Nation Builders Academy in Columbia. I write you concerning the perils of being Black and pregnant in our state and nation. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black women in the U.S. are an astounding THREE times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than their white counterparts, regardless of their socioeconomic status or education, and 80% of deaths are PREVENTABLE. Congressman, these statistics are cringe and disturbing. It is a violation of both civil and human rights. To put this further into perspective, the U.S. already has the highest maternal mortality rate amongst high income countries. The high number of maternal deaths ultimately leave a void in our already strained and stressed communities.

In the investigative journalism series Perils of Pregnancy: Black Maternal Mortality, Herbert L. White and Kylie Marsh give voice to Black women who have lived through near death pregnancy experiences, with some suffering lifelong injuries and stillbirths. The news stories show a pattern of medical mistreatment and neglect at exponential rates for black women. Many Black women receive inadequate care before and during pregnancy and postpartum; and their health concerns are often dismissed by healthcare providers. The racialized medical myths that persist in gynecology today, according to one White and Marsh news story, began here in our own state with local physician J. Marion Sims, who subjected enslaved women to torturous and egregious medical experiments and procedures without painkillers. He believed Black people were mentally and biologically inferior, but more pain tolerant.

There’s more: a recent New Jersey study shows Black women, even when their medical condition is similar to white women, they are 20% more likely to be steered towards unscheduled, unnecessary C-sections/surgery. This occurred oftentimes under the same physician. C-sections are much more financially profitable AND more of a health risk than natural births. Unfortunately, anti-Black racialized health care disparities is a broader global issue and is not unique to the U.S. For instance, in Brazil, with the highest number of African-descended Black people outside the African continent, Black mothers face the same issues and eerily for the same reasons. Therefore, Congressman, addressing this issue with effective policies and solutions here in the U.S. could potentially serve as a blueprint for combating this issue outside our nation’s borders.

For me, this topic hits very close to home. Eight years ago, my mother had a near death C-section delivery with my younger brother. The stories in the Marsh and Wright series echo what I know of my mom’s ordeal. Her pregnancy concerns were dismissed and her pain tolerance was lauded by her white nurse after she’d suffered excruciating pain due to multiple complications. As a Black youth committed to solving problems facing my community, I offer several viable life-saving solutions to consider in improving birth outcomes for Black mothers:

  1. Promoting initiatives and funding for doula and midwife use in Black communities. White and Marsh’s article discovered that doula and midwife involvement significantly improves pregnancy outcomes.
  2. Earmarking grants for doula and midwife training and promoting initiatives encouraging persons from the community to become doulas and midwives. Studies have shown that the chances of having positive healthcare outcomes generally increase for non-whites if the healthcare provider is from their community or ethnicity.
  3. Implementing mandatory, publicly accessible report cards for hospitals, physicians, and nurses, in order to detect repeat offenders who provide poor quality, neglectful medical care.
  4. Implementing publicly accessible, verified patient reviews akin to Yelp business customer reviews for feedback on hospitals, nurses, and physicians. This will allow Black mothers to make a more informed decision on who they trust with their lives and safety. 

As the pregnancy concerns of Black mothers have been ignored and dismissed by medical care providers, so have the inquiries into the issue with our state government. As a champion of social justice and a well-respected congressional lawmaker, you are well-positioned to bring this issue to the attention of Congress and influence local and global solutions. In the United States, childbirth should not be traumatic and deadly. I respectfully urge you to pursue my suggested solutions, include Black maternal mortality as an URGENT matter in your upcoming legislative discussions, and strongly support current and future legislation on this matter. Thank you for your time and I look forward to your support. 

Best regards,
Aydin Soner


Aydin M. Soner is a sixth grader at the Ubuntu Nation Builders Academy, an African-centered homeschool in Columbia, South Carolina. He is a published author and has won awards for his art and writing, which often address social justice and environmental issues. He plays the guitar and the African djembe and dundun drums. His favorite subjects are history and the sciences.  Aydin plans to use his Pulitzer Center award funds to start the Ubuntu Planters Project, where he will donate and maintain single porch/patio planters for the elderly in Columbia senior living facilities in African American communities, which oftentimes have fresh food deserts. The planters will consist of vegetable varieties that can grow together interdependently. Ubuntu is an African word from the Bantu language family which means "I am what I am because of who we all are."

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