In Crown Point, Indiana, Mercedes Wells was ready to welcome her fourth child. But despite arriving with 10-minute contractions, after six hours and a check-up with no doctor, Franciscan Hospital sent Wells and her husband home. Eight minutes later, she gave birth in their car.
Wells’ case isn’t isolated. Black women are three times more likely to die from childbirth than white women. Black babies are also more likely to be born prematurely and to die. Dr. Joel Bervell calls this “one of the starkest disparities in all of medicine.”
1986’s Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act requires emergency department staff to stabilize patients in active labor. The problem is “active labor” is subjective, and allows for anti-Black treatment. Franciscan Hospital will also make changes in its policy.
And now, Illinois Rep. Robin Kelly has announced the Women Expansion for Learning and Labor Safety Act, calling on hospitals to have a "Safe Discharge Labor Plan.” This includes “a clinical justification for discharge, assessment of travel distance, an identified back-up hospital or birthing facility, verification of reliable transportation, and documentation of patient understanding.”
What happened to Wells shouldn’t happen to any other Black mom. But what should? Longer maternity leaves? Universal and communal childcare? Free antepartum and postpartum therapy? If you’re a parent, what's important to you? Our future demands our action.