Tori Bowie's Death During Childbirth Spotlights High Maternal Mortality Rate Among Black Women
The Olympic sprinter, who was found dead May 2, died while she was in labor, according to her autopsy
The death of Olympian Tori Bowie from complications related to childbirth has spotlighted a troubling reality: Black women have the highest maternal mortality rate out of any demographic in the United States, and are three times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than White women.
Bowie, 32, experienced possible complications including “respiratory distress and eclampsia,” according to her autopsy, which was obtained by PEOPLE. She was found dead in her bed after authorities in Florida conducted a welfare check on May 2.
The track star was about eight months pregnant and was in labor at the time of her death, with a “well-developed fetus.” According to the autopsy, the 5-foot-9 inch Bowie weighed 96 pounds at the time of her death.
While her autopsy states that she died of “natural” causes, Bowie’s death fits a disturbing maternal health pattern throughout the country — something the nonprofit Every Mother Counts, which was founded by model Christy Turlington Burns in 2010, hopes to combat.
Related: Olympian Tori Bowie Died from Childbirth Complications, Rep Confirms
According to the organization, a woman is nearly twice as likely to die from complications of pregnancy and birth than her mother was a generation ago. And Black and Indigenous women are two-to-three times more likely than their White counterparts to die of complications.
A report released by the Centers for Disease Control in March showed that the U.S. had one of the worst overall rates of maternal mortality in its history, with 1,205 women dying of maternal causes in 2021 — a 40% increase from the previous year.
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Eclampsia, which according to Bowie's autopsy contributed to her death, is a “rare but serious complication of preeclampsia,” according to the Cleveland Clinic, which notes that preeclampsia can cause high blood pressure and organ damage.
The New York Times reports that studies have shown Black women are at greatest risk for pre-eclampsia in the United States, and that Bowie's Olympic teammate, Allyson Felix, needed an emergency C-section due to pre-eclampsia.
More than physical complications, systemic racism has contributed to medical inequity in Black and Indigenous communities.
"We have to address the social factors that either are barriers to accessing care or that make your medical conditions worse coming into the pregnancy," Dr. Veronica Gillispie-Bell, an OB-GYN at Ochsner Health in Louisiana, told NPR in March. "This is not just about doctors in the hospital."
Related: U.S. Olympic Gold Medalist Tori Bowie Dead at 32: 'A Great Competitor and Source of Light'
Others point to medical racism and inattentive care as being among the contributing factors as to why, for every 100,000 births in 2021, 69.9 Black women died, per the CDC.
Despite working in the healthcare field in Alabama, Angelica Lyons shared her own harrowing pregnancy story, which included an emergency C-section due to complications brought on by an undiagnosed case of sepsis, recently with the Associated Press.
“Race plays a huge part, especially in the South, in terms of how you’re treated,” Lyons said. “People are dying.”
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