The power of black motherhood: Finding joy beyond the numbers on maternal mortality

The United States has the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths among developed nations, with about 700 deaths occurring each year as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that black women are three to four times as likely to die of pregnancy-related complications as white women. The disparity reflects issues that go beyond education and income: In 2018, Beyoncé and Serena Williams shared their life-threatening experiences during childbirth as black women with access to the best medical care. 

“It can leave you with this insidious sort of fear,” columnist Helena Andrews-Dyer says. 

Andrews-Dyer spent months during her own complicated pregnancy talking to other black women about how to balance staying informed of medical realities, without getting consumed by the anxiety that, because of their race, they won’t get the care they deserve.

For decades, Silicon Valley futurists have sought to unchain humanity from the corporeal life cycle, viewing death as a transformational problem in need of a solution. And now, they might have cracked it.

“In the past, we memorialize people who have died by posting photos on Facebook or sharing old movies,” technology reporter Peter Holley says. “This is a totally different way of thinking about how we interact.”