TULSA, Okla. (AP) — At the site of a race massacre that reduced neighborhoods to ashes a century ago, where murals memorialize a once-thriving “ Black Wall Street,” one African American mother strives to keep others from dying as they try to bring new life into the world.
Black women are more than three times as likely to die from pregnancy or childbirth as white women in Oklahoma, which consistently ranks among the worst states in the nation for maternal mortality.
“Tulsa is suffering,” said Corrina Jackson, who heads up a local version of the federal Healthy Start program, coordinating needed care and helping women through their pregnancies. “We’re talking about lives here.”
Across the nation, programs at all levels of government — federal, state and local — have the same goals to reduce maternal mortality and erase the race gap. None has all the answers, but many are making headway in their communities and paving the way for other places.