A New York woman died last week after giving birth to her baby girl at a Brooklyn hospital.
Sha-Asia Washington, 26, died on July 3 after giving birth to her daughter Khloe. It is not clear what killed the young mother, but the day before her death, she went to doctor because she was concerned about her blood pressure.
A day later, Washington went into labor. Juwan Lopez, her partner, said he was eventually told to leave the room and the next time he saw Washington, she was being rushed into an operating room for a C-section. She reportedly lost consciousness, after which doctors unsuccessfully attempted to revive her.
“They tried to revive her like 15 times,” Lopez told The Shade Room.
The loss is devastating for Lopez, who was looking forward to raising his daughter with Washington.
“I just want justice. I have to raise a beautiful daughter by myself,” he said.
A cause of death has not been determined. Giving birth is risky for Black women, who are more likely to experience complications during childbirth. In New York, where Washington lived, Black mothers were 12 times more likely to die while giving birth, compared against white and Hispanic women, from 2006 to 2010, according to the New York City Department of Health. The leading causes of death were hemorrhage, embolism, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
“Although the causal relationships for the increased risk of death for Black, non-Hispanic women are not well established, pregnancy-related mortality is associated with obesity, underlying chronic illness and poverty — all conditions that disproportionately affect New York City’s Black population,” the NYC health department said. “The chronic stress of racism and social inequality also likely contribute to racial disparities in health.”
Nationwide, Black women are two to three times than whites more likely to die during childbirth, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
