Why Giving Birth Can Cost Your Life | Refinery29 - video Dailymotion

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In today’s video, we head to Georgia, the epicenter of the country's maternal mortality crisis, following two OBGYN doctors responding to the rapid closures of labor and delivery units in the state. The United States has the highest rate of pregnancy-related deaths among developed nations, and the situation is far worse in rural parts of the country. Press play to understand the reality of childbirth in Georgia.  This video was originally published by Vice and is being repurposed by Refinery29.  ABOUT REFINERY29  Refinery29 is a modern woman's destination for how to live a stylish, well-rounded life. http://refinery29.com/  RELATED CONTENT How I Discovered My Mom’s Fertility Doctor Was My Father https://youtube.com/watch?v=GOnZzLQYUDs The Terrifying Threat To Pregnant Black Women & Their Babies  https://youtube.com/watch?v=aVlmYtc3m_I The Scary Reality Of Sex Education In Alabama https://youtube.com/watch?v=j3ej5JBa95E  SUBSCRIBE TO REFINERY29 Subscribe to the Refinery29 channel: http://bit.ly/subscribe-to-r29 Follow Refinery29 on Instagram: https://instagram.com/refinery29/ Follow Somos on Instagram: https://instagram.com/r29somos/ Follow Unbothered on Instagram: https://instagram.com/r29unbothered/

Transcript

00:01Deep breath. Hold it. Push like you gotta push. Push. Move my legs. Push.

00:09Georgia ranks number one in the country for maternal death.

00:13I can't. I can't. If you look at our census records from the last century,

00:20most women died during labor or immediately afterwards.

00:24Having a baby is serious business.

00:33Most women in Georgia, they have to travel for obstetrical access.

00:38No labor and delivery unit. No doctors who can deliver babies.

00:43Hey, hey, it's Dr. Pickett. What's happening?

00:45We have a patient on the floor whose fetal heart tones are down. They're not coming back up.

00:49The U.S. is one of only three countries in the world where the rate of maternal deaths is rising.

00:57At least 60% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable.

01:02People are feeling the pressure of either doing the work or the guilt of turning people away.

01:09That's the type of cough. And eventually, the system's gonna fall apart.

01:21Let's take a look at our baby.

01:23It's a boy! Yeah. Right there. I'm gonna put man.

01:27My name is Dr. Donna Adams Pickett. I'm an obstetrician-gynecologist who practices in Augusta, Georgia.

01:36I would describe Augusta as a mid-town. It's not Atlanta, but it's not a small little hamlet either.

01:45On an average day, I'll see 35 to 40 patients a day.

01:50When I talk to my friends in other areas that are more OB-dense,

01:56most of them see roughly 25 patients a day.

01:59But the situation demands it.

02:02When we look at the statistics in Georgia, it's roughly 93 counties that do not have hospitals that have obstetrical

02:11care.

02:12So most women in Georgia, they have to travel for obstetrical access.

02:17The consequences can be fatal.

02:20How are you? Okay. So I'd like to send you over for an induction.

02:26Got some pretty impressive swelling here, though.

02:28Yeah. It's honestly been worse at the beginning of the week.

02:32These are compressions that I'm wearing.

02:35So what we're concerned about is something called preeclampsia.

02:39Are you familiar with that?

02:40Yeah. It's like the high blood pressure and it can cause seizures.

02:43Mm-hmm. That's when it becomes e-clampsia.

02:46But the big thing is that it's time for us to have a baby.

02:49Yeah. It would be best for a patient to be able to have access to a labor and delivery unit

02:54within 30 minutes of their home.

02:57In Augusta, we are the main source for patients as far away as two hours in either direction.

03:11Remember handing me that one six weeks ago?

03:13Yeah. Do you know there's been six weeks?

03:16My name is Dr. Jeffrey Harris.

03:19I am a practicing OB-GYN doctor in Jessup, Georgia.

03:25I think the challenge is in a rural community because there is such a high percentage of Medicaid is you

03:31don't get paid as much.

03:33If at some point a hospital CEO goes, that's it. We're done. We're losing money and it's not worth it

03:42for what it does for the community.

03:45The county north of us stopped delivering babies. Up to the west of us, there's one OB. That's not sustainable.

03:52To the east, there's one doctor and he's on his way out.

03:57It's hard to get people who want to do this lifestyle.

04:00Probably right now, the patient that's traveling the furthest is from a little town called Hazelhurst.

04:06They used to be able to receive care at the hospital in Baxley, which is only about 20 minutes away

04:12from their house.

04:12But now they're having to drive all the way here because there is no care in between.

04:20I feel like I am always in the car. I'm always driving.

04:25It's about 55 miles from my house to Dr. Harris's office. Longer each time I drive it.

04:37Tell me about the baby's movements.

04:39He's usually really active, especially when I'm trying to sleep.

04:43Slow down a lot. We'll put you on the monitor here in just a little bit.

04:47Make sure everything looks good.

04:50Now, to the good side, your blood pressure's good.

04:53And that probably means you have the baby before that, anyhow.

04:57I hope so.

04:58Okay, you are almost three centimeters.

05:08And that that I'm touching right there, that's baby's head through the vagina.

05:12Holy crud.

05:14Yeah, you were pretty close.

05:18Health care should be available to everybody.

05:21What if I didn't have a car?

05:23What if I wasn't able to drive an hour and 15 minutes?

05:26Because I have to take off work every day. I have to come here.

05:29I don't feel like people think it's that big of a deal.

05:32Well, to those who don't experience it.

05:35That's not something people think about.

05:37I think it's a big deal.

05:41Many of us live in the construct that women have been having babies from the beginning of time.

05:47There's no need to see doctors.

05:50If you look at our census records from the last century, most women died during labor or immediately afterwards.

05:58For the 700 people who died last year, nearly 50,000 almost died.

06:05So when you're dealing with a state like Georgia, where there's not ready access to hospitals, ready access to doctors,

06:14then we have a number of women whose medical conditions before, during and after pregnancy can be so severe that

06:24they're, if not deadly, nearly deadly.

06:29Sweetie, you don't have an appointment today. Tell me what's going on.

06:34Do you feel like you want to harm yourself?

06:37Sweetie, I really... Dominique? Dominique.

06:56Let me get her phone number. Let me get her, because she just hung up on me.

07:04Angel, get me Dominique's address.

07:06I need police for a wellness check.

07:09So I am a physician. This is a patient.

07:13She called in and said that she was very, very depressed and said that she just didn't feel like going

07:20forward with the pregnancy.

07:21I asked her to come in now, and then she hung up on me.

07:25Okay, thank you.

07:27Okay, bye-bye.

07:29All right.

07:30We're in a crisis.

07:32If I don't see these patients, somebody has to see them.

07:37Until we're able to bring more healthcare providers to Georgia, I have to be prepared for the work.

07:46This is Ms. Carter. Ms. Carter had a C-section this morning because her baby wanted to misbehave and have

07:52a really bad fetal heart tracing.

07:55But fortunately, everything turned out very well.

07:58Knock-knock.

07:59How do you feel?

08:01Like crap.

08:04You want to show the little one off?

08:05Yeah.

08:08What's your name her?

08:09Riley.

08:11All right, Ms. Riley.

08:13Say hi for the camera.

08:15This is why we do all this.

08:18Take care of you and your mama.

08:21Want to make sure there's still people that take care of you.

08:25The problem is Medicaid only lasts for about eight weeks after the delivery.

08:30Because after that they lose medical benefits.

08:33Affordable care, not affordable for most of these people.

08:37So they'll become uninsured.

08:39Some people drop off, don't see them ever again.

08:43The labor and delivery units, they begin closing in roughly 2015.

08:50And at that time, I was doing 10 to 15 deliveries a month.

08:55Since then, I've done consistently 25 to 30 deliveries a month.

09:01OBs are in the top five of those physicians who are sued.

09:05And that scares a lot of residents from pursuing this career.

09:11It's very important to me to be there for these women.

09:16What few people know is that my paternal grandmother died in labor.

09:23My dad was 12 years old when his mom died.

09:28And the baby died on a little tobacco farm in Greenville, North Carolina.

09:34Try not to get choked up talking about it.

09:36Oh, that was a pretty baby.

09:38I could see him talking about it.

09:40And it was one of the few times in my life that I ever saw my dad cry.

09:44And I knew then that I wanted to go into OB.

09:49I wanted to take care of mamas.

09:51I wanted to take care of babies.

09:54Unfortunately, in 2020, women are still dying.

09:59And with labor and delivery units being so far apart,

10:04they might as well be on that little tobacco farm in Greenville, North Carolina in 1943.

10:10Because the access to care is almost just as bad.

10:15Not only are we dealing with a maternal mortality crisis,

10:19but more severely, we're dealing with a Black maternal mortality crisis.

10:25African-American women are three to four times more likely to die in labor or immediately after delivery.

10:34It's not just uneducated, poor Black women.

10:38Educated Black women are three times more likely to be affected by maternal mortality than other ethnicities.

10:48And that's when it is very important that we address that there is implicit bias.

10:54Until we recognize that there is a problem in how we interact with women of color, we won't fix it.

11:05In Burke County, there are no practicing board-certified OBGYNs. There are none.

11:12So if you have a baby, you have to go to Augusta.

11:17That's going to take at least 45 minutes.

11:19We definitely are a prime example of what should not happen.

11:24The fact that here I am with two degrees, a great, you know, a wonderful career, you know, going to

11:32my prenatal appointment.

11:33And yet I was still almost that statistic.

11:37And that's crazy in 2020 that I get some hard care or I get ignored because I don't look like

11:46the way you, your norm or the people that you're close to.

11:51And that's so sad.

11:53That is heartbreaking.

11:58And it's almost like because you're a black woman, you're tough. You can't be hurting that bad. It's almost like

12:05we're not human.

12:07So I have my son. He's eight now. I had issues. We called the answering service. It wasn't Dr. Pickett.

12:13And when he called back, he was like, you're having pains because you're in your third trimester.

12:19It was kind of like, okay, it's going to be fine. If you have more problems, just call me back.

12:23And come to find out, my liver had shut down. My kidneys were shot. Like everything was failing.

12:31So the second time was with my son. Went in for a routine C-section. You know, everything was going

12:37perfect and something happened.

12:40With Dr. Pickett, it's amazing. When my heart stopped for whatever reason, like she was right there.

12:46Whether it was compressions or shocking me or whatever, like she was there.

12:51When I first came to, I didn't even remember that I had a baby. Once I was extubated and able

12:57to like really hold him, I just felt like everything just got better.

13:01Them bringing him and I could see his face and I could hold him against me. I think that was

13:05a turning point for me.

13:06To see the staff members like emotional, it kind of let me know like, oh yeah, they did everything they

13:11could do.

13:13My nurses are some of the most loving, giving women. So when Alquita coded, they decided to keep him in

13:22the nursery at our hospital.

13:24And they loved on that baby every day. And the night that I discharged Alquita, I can count at least

13:31three nurses who just burst into tears who were, I'm not ready.

13:35We weren't prepared for this. And they are so eager to see him that they wanted to throw him a

13:40first birthday party.

13:41Look at this. Oh my gosh. Look at this. You can feel it.

13:53That is the coolest thing. I love that.

14:00What's going on? Hey, hey, hey. It's Dr. Pickett. What's happening?

14:05We have a patient on the floor whose fetal heart tones are down. Dr. Adams Pickett is going back to

14:11the OR to open up for another doctor in an emergency situation.

14:15Okay. Hey, sir. We're going to try to get something in there. Hi, I'm Dr. Adams Pickett.

14:19Looks like we're going to have to get your wife delivered really quickly.

14:23Because her baby's heart rate is down and it's not coming up.

14:38It's close. You're next door after a race.

14:42This job is the best job in the world.

14:46And some days it's like being inside the dryer, getting tumbled around.

14:51And some days it's like a baby's heart.

14:57It's not coming up to him.

14:59All right. You're starting the contraction.

15:01Take a deep breath.

15:03Hold it. Push like you've got to push.

15:07Push. No noise.

15:09Push.

15:10Don't breathe. Hold your breath and push.

15:13Again. One more time.

15:16Push.

15:16I'm beginning to see baby's heart a little bit.

15:25Almost there, it's gonna burn a little more you're so close come on give it all you got all you

15:38got right now one more big

15:40Push, stop pushing, breathe, drop the tap, baby's head's out. Push, push, push, get him out. Oh my god. Look

15:57down here mama. There he is. And it is the boys right now. Excellent job mama.

16:10Everything with delivering the baby is just so cool. It's 90% sheer joy and 10% sheer panic. I

16:19have done this 38 years and I never get tired of it. It's the best thing in the world.

16:25Your baby is fine. Your baby is just fine. Oh my gosh she's a chunky monkey. She's precious. She was

16:32like 5, 12. I don't know what she was doing in there. Look at her.

16:39Congratulations. Now you know. Now you know.

16:41We got into the operating room emergently. We made an incision at 28 and we had a baby at 29.

16:49So it was and she was she was holding on to her umbilical cord like it was a bungee jump

16:57or something like that.

16:58And I think that's why her heart rate went down. But so this is the life of an OB. So

17:07unpredictable. And so I had to tell baby Liam that he saved this baby's life. Because if I weren't here,

17:16I don't know if our little baby would have made it.

17:19And then he would give off her hair. Oh my goodness.

17:26Start to get him off me. Hey sugar. I'm the first set of hands to ever touch you. That was

17:35me.

17:36Georgia doesn't have the only maternal mortality in the United States. Every other state in this country needs to prioritize

17:46mothers and their health. And until it becomes a priority, it's just going to worsen.

17:53You just saved that baby's life. Did you know? Oh!

18:01When you have a bad outcome when everybody expected a joyous event, it's obviously traumatic for the family, but it's

18:09traumatic for all the health care providers. If we allow more labor and delivery units to close and we don't

18:17adequately replace obstetricians as they retire, there will be more deaths.

18:29If there's no statistic that can quantify what it's like to tell an 18 month old that his mother's never

18:34coming home.

18:37My wife deserved better. Women all over this country deserve better.

19:05And have they touted a while in the city?

19:09Looking at the weather?

19:09Yes, sir.

19:10Wow, yes, sir.

19:11I saw a woman in Hawaii.

19:12I saw many birthday earlier, and Miss ξdinary fans in Hawaii.

19:12Great woman in Hawaii.

19:13Lauren.

Why Giving Birth Can Cost Your Life | Refinery29

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