Check out A More Perfect Union: When the Water Breaks
byCOVID-19-
Tracing America's maternal mortality crisis to Philadelphia
Home to America’s first hospital, first medical school and many early American medical associations, Philadelphia is widely regarded as the birthplace of modern medicine.
Lesser known is the city’s history as the birthplace of American obstetrics. But while maternal health innovations created here have saved countless lives, Black women have paid a price for the progress. Early doctors exploited their bodies to create the birth and delivery care system that is today more likely to harm them than it is white women.
In the latest installment of A More Perfect Union – our year-long series examining the Philadelphia roots of systemic racism in America – reporter Layla A. Jones connects Philadelphia’s history to America’s current maternal mortality crisis.
She shares the story of a Black woman whose pelvis was stolen from her by her doctor after she died in childbirth and explores the work happening to change how obstetrics is practiced today.
When the Water Breaks is available now on Inquirer.com and coming this weekend in the Sunday Inquirer.
