An autopsy on Olympic gold medal sprinter Tori Bowie shows she died while in labor. She was eight months pregnant and healthy, and her baby did not survive.
But that autopsy revealed she was dealing with a pregnancy-related condition that’s a higher risk among Black women, eclampsia.
The 32-year-old’s death sparked conversations and raised awareness.
“This is an exceedingly sad story,” said Dr. Ray Bahado-Singh, System Chair for the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Corewell Health Beaumont University Hospital. “I’ve just gotten so many, so many texts from all over the country, and people are in shock. This is something that we saw more frequently in the old days. It has not disappeared, it still can occur, but principally it represents inadequate prenatal care.”
“It’s hurtful and sad because we deserve better care than what we get,” said Desiree Cameron, a Detroit doula and mother of two.
Bowie was found dead in her home in early May.
This week, her autopsy report revealed pregnancy complications like respiratory distress and eclampsia, a serious form of preeclampsia.
“Black women are at a significantly increased risk for preeclampsia, about 60% greater risk, and therefore this severe form of preeclampsia with a seizure, eclampsia, is, unfortunately, more common in Black women,” Bahado-Singh said.
What’s more alarming was how often deaths like Bowie’s were happening.
A CDC report released in March 2023 shows a significant increase in maternal deaths from 2020 to 2021 for all races.
But the maternal death rate for Black women is 2.6 times more than for white women.
“It’s just honestly racial disparity within the western medicine and hospital spaces,” said Cameron. “Unfortunately, Black women, before even having birth, we don’t have the best care as, unfortunately, a white woman would have, and it’s just because of bias and unconscious bias, I would say, lack of education.”
Cameron also said people in Detroit were already addressing some of those racial disparities with education and teaching patients how to advocate for themselves.
“The conversation has been had for, I would say, about the past two to five years, because women have been dying at a very high rate, especially Black women,” Cameron said. “There’s been a lot of organizations that have started here in Detroit, specifically Birth Detroit, Mothering Justice, Embrace Collective that I’ve co-founded, and we are here to support women.”
There are preventative options for conditions like preeclampsia.
“A single baby aspirin a day before seven months, starting before seven months, can reduce the risk of preeclampsia by about 40%,” Bahado-Singh said. “But eclampsia is principally a disease of inadequate or insufficient care.”
Bahado-Singh also mentioned he reached out to lawmakers on behalf of doctors at Corewell Health, other hospitals, and universities, proposing widely distributing daily baby aspirin to help with preeclampsia and premature births.
Cameron said there are also holistic preventative measures pregnant women can take.
