DES MOINES, Iowa — Last month, 32-year-old Tori Bowie, the sprinter who won three Olympic medals at the 2016 Rio De Janeiro games, passed away suddenly.
Now, an autopsy shows that Bowie died from complications of childbirth.
Bowie is one of many Black women to lose her life during childbirth. According to the CDC, in 2021, the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, almost three times the rate seen in white women.
Dr. Payal Kohli says physicians have the power to change those statistics.
"Doctors have two responsibilities when it comes to Black mothers," Kohli said. "And that's really to work on addressing the biological risk, and work on also addressing the socioeconomic or social determinants of risk."
Kohli says the disparity in maternal mortality rates between Black women and white women is so startling, it's making national health leaders sit up and take note.
"I think the CDC and the World Health Organization have both sounded an alarm that, especially here in the United States, and especially amongst Black women, we really need to do better when it comes to saving maternal lives," Kohli said.
But it doesn't take a doctorate for some Iowans to take action.
Ebonie Bailey is a doula who's seen hundreds of birth. She's also the co-founder of the Iowa Black Doula Collective. Their mission is to help women of color survive and thrive during their birthing experience.
"I wanted to make sure that I created opportunities for not only other Black women to become doulas, but for Black birthing families to have the support that they deserve and desperately need," Bailey said.
After unsuccessfully finding another Black doula in Iowa to help with the birth of her own child, Bailey decided to make sure no other mother in the state had to face this problem.
"Since 2020, [I] have trained 57 Black women to become doulas throughout the entire state," Bailey said. "We have supported over 100 Black birthing families through grant funding."
Bailey doesn't plan to stop her work there. The Iowa Black Doula Collective is still growing and looking to change the lives of mothers.
On July 16, Bailey and her team will host a community baby shower for Black birthing families at Broadlawns Medical Center.