New campaign aims to turn the tide on maternal mortality in Chicago’s Black community

Shernita Hosey, 38, knows what it’s like to endure postpartum depression. The single mom of two daughters, ages 10 and 14, remembers the support she sought from family and friends after her children were born.

That’s why the Humboldt Park resident can often be seen canvassing door to door in South Side neighborhoods as an outreach worker with EverThrive Illinois, a health equity advocacy group.

The latest campaign centers on the Black maternal morbidity crisis, which encapsulates any health problems that result from being pregnant or giving birth. According to an October report on Illinois discrimination was 50% more likely to be a contributing factor in pregnancy-related deaths among Black women as compared with white women; Black women were three times as likely to die from pregnancy-related medical conditions as white women; and statewide maternal mortality review committees determined 91% of pregnancy-related deaths were potentially preventable due to clinical, systemic, social, community or patient factors. Such statistics have spurred numerous to try to make inroads in their own ways, .