ESSENCE: “We Can’t Shrink From The Fight”: Black Maternal Health Advocates On The Crisis—And The Hope—Driving Change

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Our Leader in Residence Jeanine Valrie Logan was interviewed for Essence magazine.

By Jasmine Browley · Updated April 17, 2025

When Dr. Faith Ohuoba, a board-certified OB-GYN in Houston, Texas, noticed swelling in her legs after delivering her baby via C-section, she trusted her instincts. Her blood pressure had spiked to a deadly 200/120—yet her doctor ignored her concerns. So she did what she had to do: prescribed herself blood pressure medication.

“I could have died,” she told ESSENCE. “I’m a physician, and even I was dismissed. So I kept thinking—what happens to the woman who doesn’t know what to look for?”

Dr. Ohuoba’s story is not the exception. It’s the rule. In the U.S., Black women are three times more likely than white women to die from pregnancy-related causes. In some cities, like New York, that number soars to 12 times. The CDC estimates that 80% of all maternal deaths are preventable.

“We are in a deplorable state,” said Dr. Venice Haynes, a public health researcher. “In 2023, maternal mortality rates declined for white, Hispanic, and Asian women. But for Black women? They went up. That’s not a coincidence. That’s racism—structural and systemic.”

A History of Harm, A Present in Peril

This crisis didn’t appear overnight. As Jeanine Valrie Logan, a certified nurse midwife and founder of the Chicago South Side Birth Center, explains, “Modern gynecology was built on the experimentation of Black bodies during slavery. That legacy is still baked into the system.”

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