The maternal mortality rate is twice as high if the mother is Black, when compared to white moms.\n<\/p>\n
Over 71% of mothers who died during childbirth in the Bronx, were Black and Hispanic, according to the 2021 Health Department report.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Many medical professionals who study the Black experience in healthcare systems have written<\/a> about how discrimination against Black women and other women of color is still affecting the way they\u2019re being treated by doctors in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n Expectant Black and Hispanic mothers have reported not being listened to, or taken seriously by, their doctors during hospital visits.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n That includes mothers like Amber Rose Isaac, who repeatedly told her gynecologist that she was having trouble breathing and other symptoms, making her pregnancy difficult. When bloodwork was finally conducted, she died a day later during an emergency C-section at Montefiore Einstein.\u00a0<\/p>\n Montefiore declined to comment on Amber\u2019s case in an email to the Bronx Times, citing pending litigation, HIPAA regulations and patient privacy rules.\u00a0 \u201cThere\u2019s a bias against people because they\u2019re a certain color, because they don\u2019t have any money. There\u2019s an infantilization that happens during labor where people feel like they aren\u2019t heard,\u201d said Evelyn Alvarez, one of the founders of BX Rebirth<\/a>, a coalition of experienced doulas and lactation counselors in the Bronx.\u00a0<\/p>\n Regarding the quality of pre-natal care for women in the Bronx, Alvarez said, \u201cIf it rains on other people, it snows on us.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Expectant mothers in the Bronx are exceedingly concerned about whether they\u2019ll live to see their child be born, Alvarez said. And if their doctors will follow their birthing plan. More often than not, women of color are forced into situations where they have to deliver their babies via c-section, going against their initial wishes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe possibility of you having a c-section is based on who\u2019s on shift, or the day of the week,\u201d Alvarez said, it\u2019s inconsistent. \u201cIt often happens that once you go into the hospital a lot of what you have prepared for, is not going to be accessible to you.\u201d<\/p>\n In all of NYC, the Bronx has the highest number of low-risk pregnant mothers who, at first, did not need surgery, yet still ended up getting a cesarean section \u2013 over 30%<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not being properly treated,\u201d said Brittney Russell<\/a>, a Wakefield native who made the film \u201cYou Are Not Alone,\u201d documenting Black maternal health disparities in the Bronx. \u201cA lot of women in the Bronx are in survival mode.\u201d<\/p>\n Things that come easily to other expectant mothers are much more difficult for women in the Bronx, she said \u2014 from difficulty getting to and from their gynecologist appointments to not having access to affordable, healthy foods.\u00a0<\/p>\n Women are afraid to give birth in the Bronx, but it doesn\u2019t have to be that way, Russell said.\n<\/p>\n Doulas and Midwives fill those gaps for expecting mothers who feel like they aren\u2019t being listened to or their needs are being ignored. They ensure that a person with medical knowledge is standing up for the mother and that she\u2019s not alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n It was Amber Isaac\u2019s midwife who alerted doctors to her low platelet count, which revealed her rare condition, HELLP Syndrome<\/a>, which led to her death. Had doctors conducted bloodwork earlier, like when Amber was complaining of pain, her death could\u2019ve been avoided.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson said in an exclusive interview with the Bronx Times that Gov. Kathy Hochul has announced a $5 million commitment in November 2025 to open a birthing center in the Bronx.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a city of 8.4 million people, there\u2019s only one other birthing center<\/a> for expectant mothers.\u00a0<\/p>\n The center would be a non-surgical healthcare facility for women with low-risk pregnancies who seek a natural, unmedicated birthing experience. It would be primarily staffed with midwives and nurses, focus on wellness, and offer personalized care.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a maternal health care consortium of doulas and midwives and birth workers, and we\u2019ve been talking very intentionally about how we can transform the healthcare system when it comes to maternal health and giving women of color a real voice,\u201d Gibson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She added that it\u2019s important, \u201clistening to women when they say that they have certain conditions and things that they would like to see from their doctors and their medical professionals that they were not getting before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The desire for a birthing center<\/a> came from advocates and organizations like the Birthing Place<\/a>, who emphasize that improving maternal health education is the most important factor in ensuring positive outcomes for expecting mothers in the borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re all figuring out how to solve for all the symptoms rather than getting to the core of how we can help solve the problem, or even be preventative. This requires reimagining, restructuring and creating opportunities for out-of-hospital birth access which includes birth centers,\u201d said Myla Flores, founder of the Birthing Place.<\/p>\n Flores said that she hopes one day there can be birthing options that don\u2019t just involve hospitals and are affordable to expecting mothers.\n<\/p>\n \u201cNow, if people want a home birth, there are so many people who can\u2019t fully entertain that because of the related, out-of-pocket costs they would have to come up with and then hope to be reimbursed.\u201d<\/p>\n The way Russell sees it, it\u2019s not that women don\u2019t want to give birth in the Bronx; it\u2019s that they\u2019re unsure what kind of treatment they\u2019re going to be given by the doctors in their community.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bronx is not a testing site to see if you can become a good doctor. You should already be a good doctor when you get here,\u201d she added, noting that doctors often come to the borough for a rotation, wanting to work in an \u201cunderserved\u201d community.\u00a0<\/p>\n There needs to be racial bias training in medical schools, Russell said. While it\u2019s important to open birthing centers and fund birthing programs, the change needs to start in medical education.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a systemic issue,\u201d she said, adding that there needs to be medical professionals that expectant mothers can rely on in their most vulnerable state. \u201cThere needs to be a gutting, a reimagining of what it means to be a doctor handling women of color.\u201d<\/p>\n After Amber died, Bruce decided he had to do whatever he could<\/a> to stand up for Black mothers who aren\u2019t listened to by hospital systems like Montefiore. This could not keep happening to mothers who are just trying to bring life into the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/IMG_2090-e1770336545500.jpeg\")
Bruce McIntyre with his son Elias. Elias\u2019 mother, Amber Rose Isaac died while giving birth to him in 2020. Photo courtesy Bruce McIntyre.\n<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot-2026-02-05-at-7.19.26-PM.jpg\")
Still of Brittney Russell\u2019s film, \u201cYou Are Not Alone,\u201d which documented Black maternal health disparities in the Bronx. Courtesy of Brittney Russell<\/p>\n