The NYC Maternal mortality review board

Last year I was invited to join the NYC Maternal Mortality Review Board. These groups exist in almost every state (two in NY, one for the city the other the rest of the state), and review every death of a woman up to year after her birth to determine if her death was pregnancy/birth related and if so what, if anything could have been done to prevent her death. This then goes into the statistics and then also creates recommendations to the CDC and other birth stakeholders. 

I assumed going in this that he experience was going to be emotionally exhausting, trying and maybe even traumatizing. As an almost casualty myself who survived one of the most common causes of maternal death (hemorrhage), and a doula obviously, this is an issue very near and dear to my heart. I actively take care of my clients to the best of my ability to help protect them from harm and loved this opportunity to do that work on a much bigger scale. As much as I'd like to be at all the births, I cannot. I must sleep too! 

What I did not anticipate was how much I was going to learn. It is so incredibly enriching to sit in a room with so many diverse disciplines of birth and community experience and expertise and discuss these people who passed with dignity, and digging deep. Unlike reading headlines and being frustrated, I get to ask all my questions, and ask someone who knows. I get to ask the cardiac specialist exactly how the blood flow through the heart chambers and valves caused this complication, the anatomy of the major arteries, ask someone from the OCME office the standards of ambulance care and what happened here, ask a clinical psychiatrist the uses of medications and street drugs and caring for those dependent on them, ask the head of obstetrics and gynecology from one of the biggest hospitals in NYC what those test results mean in plain english. 

Before my first meeting I was afraid this experience might make me more scared of births but its actually boosted my confidence in supporting births safely. To know how accidents happen, better equips you to avoid them. What used to feel like the boogey man now feels like a manageable understanding of risk factors. 

I look forward to sharing more and practicing more how to stay safer in birth and in our communities. There is good news here and the good news is you can have a safe, happy and beautiful birth!