"Mothers Erased"

KXAN-TV
02/24/2020

A new mother suffering from high blood pressure after giving birth was afraid to go to sleep because she wasn’t sure if she would wake back up. Another mom spent 10 days in a coma after her twins were born, while another suddenly started having heart attacks. Those are just a few of the women KXAN spoke with during a five-month investigation into pregnancy-related deaths and near-deaths.

Our “Mothers Erased” project launched with the help of ProPublica and its own “Lost Mothers” reporting nationwide. KXAN wanted to look at the issue in Texas, so we reached out to communities across the state through a crowdsourcing initiative that allowed other mothers – or those who knew women who died surrounding childbirth – to share their experiences.

We wanted to know how their stories could help shape future research into maternal illness, so we created a secure online form for people to upload their deadly or near-death birth experiences. That form was shared with 12 other Nexstar TV stations and their websites, which prompted responses statewide. Our investigation found that because some women survived life-threatening pregnancy complications, their experiences aren’t being tracked as part of Texas’ maternal mortality and morbidity statistics. And, we discovered, even when women die from such health problems, their deaths aren’t always included in official maternal mortality rates in Texas and around the U.S.

We first began investigating how the state’s maternal mortality rate is calculated last fall after the release of a report from the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force. Our investigation found, the state is years behind when it comes to maternal mortality data. But, even those numbers discount certain women who the state says would be included had they died sooner – earlier than 42 days after giving birth, the World Health Organization’s standard for labeling a maternal death.

Our investigation ultimately found there are still many unanswered questions and shortfalls in the system, sparking state legislation to require more research and better tracking of information to accurately know how many women die of pregnancy complications every year in Texas.

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Supporting Files

Submitted Josh Hinkle.