BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) -- A Brooklyn father vows to fight for maternal health for women of color after his wife and two other women died while giving birth at Woodhull Hospital.
The Health Department admits the city-run hospital is facing a maternal health crisis.
Jose Perez remembers the day in November of last year feeling helpless. It’s when his wife Christine Fields went into labor.
Perez said, “They were not listening to me, my voice was not being heard.”
Fields was rushed to Woodhull Hospital and he said just minutes after her arrival she experienced complications following an emergency C-section. Perez said it was the worst day of his life. “I went to check on her and she was basically lifeless."
What happened next Perez says, only added to his pain and intense feeling of being disrespected by the very same doctors he entrusted with his wife’s care.
After eleven days, Perez said he was finally allowed to take his newborn baby Anual home.
Fields is not the other one going through these same feelings, he’s part of a disturbing trend of mothers losing their lives during childbirth.
Chole Lopez, a 4-year-old, lost her mother Sha-Asia Simple the same day she was born at Woodhull Hospital. "She went in for an epidural and I didn't see her after that," said Desiree Williams, Chole's grandmother. "The next time I saw her, they were pumping her chest trying to revive her."
In September, 24-year-old Bevorlin Garcia-Barrios also died while giving birth at Woodhull.
The City’s Health Department said an average of 20 women die each year from pregnancy or childbirth-related causes. Black and brown women make up a majority of the fatalities.
Black women are nine times more likely to die due to pregnancy-related complications. Experts agree, that racism often drives systemic disparities.
Dr. Cristina Pardo, an OBGYN said, “This is not just New York City phenomenon. This is evident also in New York State, not to the same level and across the U.S., so this is a disparity when it comes to black women, black families, black communities, and the challenges that they face in their communities and the hospitals."
Dr. Parsi is now doing advocacy work to help women in her own community.
Alana Wade is a Doula and Yoga instructor, she has been working with pregnant women for years.
Wade said, “A lot of people that are Medicaid recipients don’t have the best access to spaces when it comes to providers like esthetically, professionally just the lack of holistic care which can be very crucial during pregnancy.”
Wade opened Full Circle Wellness in Harlem to help women.
Perez is not on the frontlines in hopes of helping families and changing laws.
In a statement, New York Health and Hospitals said: "New York City Health and Hospitals says HIPPA prevents it from speaking about any specific patient case."
But in a statement, the health care system says that it "provides quality, culturally responsive health care services to address the disparities and race-based healthcare gaps that historically and disproportionally affect the diverse population of patients we proudly serve."
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