Serena Williams' pregnancy scare was just one example of problems facing American mothers Phoebe Sunshine

Mothers across America are dying every day, and it is not for a reason consistently broadcast on our evening news. The maternal mortality rate in the United States is considerably worse than other developed nations.

Further, the already poor maternal mortality rate worsens by race, with black women dying at a rate three to four times the rate of white women, and other minorities experiencing similar disparities. What are the reasons for these inequalities? There is not one concrete answer, but a series of factors play into the systemic issues in our maternal health care.

One contributing element is women of color tend to have poorer access to quality reproductive care, and this combined with a lack of prenatal care greatly increases the chance of pregnancy-related death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also reported a great portion of the racial disparity comes from racial bias in the healthcare system.

A notable example of this bias can be seen in the story of Serena Williams, who alerted a nurse she believed she needed a CT scan after giving birth to her daughter, Alexis Olympia. Williams had a history of pulmonary embolisms and felt she was experiencing similar symptoms in the time after her Cesarean section. The nurse thought her pain medicine was simply making her confused, and Williams had to insist on care to eventually find she had blood clots settled in her lungs.

So, what is going on in legislation to conquer this issue? In 2018, the bipartisan bill "Preventing Maternal Deaths Act," otherwise known as H.R. 1318, was signed into law by President Donald Trump. Congresswomen such as Jaime Herrera Beutler and Diana DeGette, as well as Senators Heidi Heitkamp and Shelley Moore Capito, lead the charge on passing this.

Essentially, H.R. 1318 establishes a state Maternal Mortality Review Committee to review every pregnancy-related death, and hopefully implement procedures which will stop those that were preventable.

The goal is to figure out whether a death was related to pregnancy, if it could have been prevented, what factors contributed to it, and to recommend changes to prevent it from happening again. However, the difficulty lies in how these MMRCs can implement changes, especially as far as health equity and racial disparity is concerned.

MMRCs have collected data that shows the relevancy and urgency of this issue, particularly in data collected from 14 states during the period of 2008-2017.

They found approximately two out of three pregnancy-related deaths occur outside of the day of delivery or week postpartum, the leading causes of pregnancy-related deaths varied by race and ethnicity, and approximately two out of three deaths were preventable.

These factors are mind-boggling, and while the data collection is certainly a necessary first step, the power the MMRCs hold over policy changes and reducing discrimination in healthcare is unclear.

One state is ahead of the rest in conquering this issue, and that is California. California has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the country, but black women in California still die at a rate three to four times higher than white women from pregnancy-related causes. To address this disparity, California lawmakers approved Senate Bill 464, known as the "California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act."

This law will require implicit bias training for perinatal healthcare providers and will also require the state to track and publish data on their maternal mortality rates.

If more states follow in California's footsteps, and H.R. 1318 establishes a more thorough follow-up process for MMRCs, the United States could be on its way to saving the lives of women who are dying for no reason every day.

It is essential that we not only gather the data, which is largely addressed in H.R. 1318, but learn what to do with that data. Giving birth is scary enough, and it should not be worsened by the fear of death due to a lack of proper care.

While there are a complexity of problems surrounding the racial inequities in maternal health, beginning with steps such as implicit bias training and mandatory reporting is definitely a good start.

Phoebe Sunshine of Annapolis is a senior at American University majoring in political science.

Caption: Serena Williams poses with her daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian on Sept. 17.

serenawilliams via Instagram