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Why Giving Birth Can Cost Your Life | Refinery29 - YouTube
Channel: Refinery29
[1]
-Deep breath. Hold it.
[3]
Good. Looks good.
[5]
Push.
[6]
-[ Groans ]
[7]
Push. Doing all right. Push.
[9]
-Georgia ranks number one in
the country for maternal death.
[12]
-Push through it.
-We're almost there.
[14]
-I can't! I can't!
[15]
-If you look at our
census records
[17]
from the last century...
-[ Groans ]
[20]
-...most women died during labor
or immediately afterwards.
[24]
Having a baby is
serious business.
[27]
-Oh, my gosh!
[29]
[ Baby cries ]
[30]
-Excellent job.
[33]
-Most women in Georgia,
[35]
they have to travel
for obstetrical access.
[38]
-No labor and delivery unit.
[40]
No doctors who can
deliver babies.
[43]
-Okay, you can start the ticket.
What's happening?
[45]
-We have a patient on the floor
[47]
who's fetal heart tones
are down.
[48]
They're not coming back up.
[50]
-The U.S. is one of only
three countries in the world
[53]
where the rate of
maternal deaths is rising.
[57]
At least 60% of pregnancy
related deaths are preventable.
[61]
-People are feeling the pressure
of either doing the work
[66]
or the guilt
of turning people away.
[69]
That's a tough call.
[70]
Eventually the system's
going to fall apart.
[73]
鈾櫔
[81]
-Let's take a look at our baby.
[83]
-It's a boy!
[85]
-See? Right there.
-Oh, my God!
[87]
-My name is
Dr. Donna Adams-Pickett.
[90]
I'm an obstetrician-gynecologist
who practices in
[93]
Augusta, Georgia.
[96]
I would describe Augusta
as a mid-town.
[101]
It's not Atlanta, but it's not
a small little hamlet either.
[105]
On an average day, I'll see
35 to 40 patients a day.
[110]
When I talk to my friends
in other areas that are
[114]
more OB-dense, most of them see
roughly 25 patients a day,
[119]
but the situation demands it.
[122]
When we look at the statistics
in Georgia,
[125]
it's roughly 93 counties
that do not have hospitals
[130]
that have obstetrical care.
[132]
So most women in Georgia,
[134]
they have to travel
for obstetrical access.
[137]
The consequences can be fatal.
[140]
How are you? Okay. So I want to
send you over for an induction.
[145]
Some pretty impressive
swelling here, though.
[149]
-It's honestly been worse
in the beginning of the week.
[152]
These are compression socks
I'm wearing.
[155]
-So what we're concerned
about is something
[157]
called preeclampsia.
[158]
Are you familiar with that?
[160]
-Yeah, it's like
high blood pressure,
[162]
and it can cause seizures.
[163]
-Mm-hmm. That's when
it becomes eclampsia.
[166]
The big thing is that it's time
for us to have a baby.
[168]
-Yeah.
-It would be best for a patient
[171]
to be able to have access
to a labor and delivery unit
[174]
within 30 minutes of their home.
[176]
In Augusta, we are the main
source for patients as far away
[181]
as two hours in
either direction.
[187]
-Alright. [ Sighs ]
[191]
-Remember handing me
that one six weeks ago?
[193]
-Yeah. Can you believe
it's been six weeks?
[196]
My name is Dr. Jeffrey Harris.
[198]
I am a practicing
OBGYN doctor in Jesup, Georgia.
[204]
I think the challenge
is in a rural community
[207]
because there is such
a high percentage of Medicaid,
[211]
is you don't get paid as much,
but at some point,
[214]
a hospital CEO goes,
"That's it, we're done,
[219]
we're losing money,
and it's not worth it
[222]
for what it does
for the community."
[224]
The county north of us stopped
delivering babies.
[228]
Up to the west of us,
there's one OB.
[230]
That's not sustainable.
[232]
To the east, there's one doctor,
and he's on his way out.
[236]
It's hard to get people
who want to do this lifestyle.
[240]
Probably right now the patient
that's traveling the furthest
[243]
is from a little town
called Hazlehurst.
[245]
They used to be able
to receive care
[248]
at the hospital in Baxley,
which was only about
[251]
20 minutes away
from their house.
[253]
But now they're having to drive
all the way here
[255]
because there is
no care in between.
[259]
-I feel like I'm always
in the car, I'm always driving.
[265]
It's about 55 miles from
my house to Dr. Harris' office.
[270]
Longer each time I drive it.
[272]
[ Laughs ]
[277]
-Tell me about
the baby's movements.
[278]
-Um, he's usually really active,
[281]
especially when I'm trying
to sleep.
[283]
-Slow down a lot.
-Yeah.
[285]
-We'll put you on the monitor
here in just a little bit,
[287]
make sure everything looks good.
[290]
The good side,
the blood pressure's good.
[291]
-Yay!
[293]
-And that probably means you'll
have the baby before then.
[297]
-I hope so.
[298]
-Okay, you are...
[303]
...almost three centimeters.
[307]
[ Chuckles ]
[308]
That that I'm touching
right there...
[310]
-Uh-huh.
-...that's the baby's head
[311]
through the vagina.
-Holy crud.
[314]
-Yeah, you're pretty close.
[318]
-Healthcare should be
available to everybody.
[321]
What if I don't have a car,
you know?
[323]
What if I wasn't able to drive
an hour and 15 minutes?
[327]
Because I have to take off work
every day I to come here.
[329]
I don't feel like people think
it's that big of a deal.
[332]
Well, to those
who don't experience it,
[335]
you know, that's not something
people think about.
[337]
I think it's a big deal.
[340]
-Many of us live in
the construct that women
[344]
have been having babies
from the beginning of time,
[348]
there's no need to see doctors.
[350]
If you look at our census
records from the last century,
[353]
most women died during labor
or immediately afterwards.
[358]
For the 700 people
who died last year,
[363]
nearly 50,000 almost died.
[366]
So when you're dealing
with a state like Georgia
[369]
where there's not ready access
to hospitals,
[372]
ready access to doctors,
then we have a number of women
[377]
whose medical conditions before,
during, and after pregnancy
[382]
can be so severe that they're,
if not deadly, nearly deadly.
[389]
-Sweetie, you don't have
an appointment today.
[391]
Tell me what's going on.
[394]
Do you feel like you want
to harm yourself?
[397]
Sweetie, I really --
[399]
Dominique? Dominique?
[417]
Get her phone number.
[419]
I'm gonna get her
because she just hung up on me.
[424]
Angel, get me
Dominique's address.
[426]
I need police for
a wellness check.
[429]
So I am a physician.
This is a patient. Um...
[433]
She called in and said that
she was very, very depressed
[437]
and said that she just didn't
feel like going forward
[440]
with the pregnancy.
[441]
I asked her to come in now,
and then she hung up on me.
[445]
Okay, thank you. Okay.
[449]
All right.
[450]
We're in a crisis.
[452]
If I don't see these patients,
somebody has to see them.
[457]
Until we're able to bring
more healthcare providers
[460]
to Georgia, I have to be
prepared for the work.
[466]
-This is Miss Carter.
[468]
Miss Carter had a C-section
this morning
[469]
because her baby
wanted to misbehave
[472]
and have a really bad
fetal heart tracing.
[475]
But fortunately,
everything turned out very well.
[478]
Knock, knock.
How do you feel?
[481]
-Like crap.
-[ Chuckles ]
[484]
You want to show
the little one off?
[485]
-Yeah.
[488]
-What did you name her?
-Riley.
[490]
-All right, Miss Riley.
[493]
Say hi for the camera.
[494]
See, this is why
we do all this.
[497]
Huh? Take care of you
and your mama.
[501]
We're gonna make sure
there's still people
[503]
to take care of you.
[505]
The problem is Medicaid
only lasts about eight weeks
[509]
after the delivery
because after that,
[510]
they lose medical benefits.
[513]
Affordable care, not affordable
for most of these people.
[517]
So they'll become uninsured.
Some people drop off.
[521]
Don't see him ever again.
[523]
-The labor and delivery units,
[526]
they began closing
in roughly 2015.
[530]
And at that time, I was doing
10 to 15 deliveries a month.
[535]
Since then, I've done
consistently 25 to 30
[538]
deliveries a month.
[540]
OBs are in the top five of
those physicians who are sued,
[546]
and that scares
a lot of residents
[548]
from pursuing this career.
[551]
It's very important to me
to be there for these women.
[556]
What few people know is that
my paternal grandmother died
[562]
in labor.
[563]
My dad was 12 years old
when his mom died,
[567]
and the baby died on
a little tobacco farm
[571]
in Greenville, North Carolina.
[574]
Trying not to get choked up
talking about it.
[576]
"Oh, that was a pretty baby."
[577]
I could see him
talking about it.
[580]
And it was one of the few times
in my life
[582]
that I ever saw my dad cry.
[585]
And I knew then
that I wanted to go into OB.
[588]
I wanted to take care mamas.
I wanted to take care of babies.
[594]
Unfortunately, in 2020,
women are still dying.
[598]
And with labor and delivery
units being so far apart,
[604]
they might as well be
on that little tobacco farm
[606]
in Greenville, North Carolina,
in 1943
[611]
because the access to care
is almost just as bad.
[614]
Not only are we dealing with
a maternal mortality crisis,
[619]
but more severely we're dealing
[621]
with a Black maternal
mortality crisis.
[625]
African-American women
are three to four times
[628]
more likely to die in labor
or immediately after delivery.
[635]
It's not just uneducated,
poor Black women.
[638]
Educated Black women are three
times more likely to be affected
[643]
by maternal mortality
than other ethnicities.
[648]
And that's when it is very
important that we address
[652]
that there is implicit bias.
[654]
Until we recognize that there
is a problem in how we interact
[659]
with women of color,
we won't fix it.
[665]
-In Burke County, there are
no practicing
[668]
board certified OBGYNs.
[671]
There are none.
[673]
So if you have a baby,
you have to go to Augusta.
[676]
That's going to take
at least 45 minutes.
[679]
We definitely are
a prime example
[682]
of what should not happen.
[684]
The fact that here I am
with two degrees,
[689]
you know, a wonderful career,
[691]
you know, going to
my prenatal appointment.
[693]
And yet I was still
almost that statistic.
[697]
And that's crazy in 2020
that I get sub-par care
[702]
or I get ignored because I don't
look like the way you --
[707]
your normal or the people
that you're close to.
[711]
And that's so sad.
[713]
It's heartbreaking.
[718]
And it's almost like because
you're a Black woman,
[722]
you're tough,
you can't be hurting that bad.
[724]
It's almost like
we're not human.
[727]
So I had my son. He's 8 now.
[728]
I had issues.
[730]
We called an answering service.
It wasn't Dr. Pickett.
[733]
And when he called back,
he was like,
[735]
"You're having pains because
you're in your third trimester."
[738]
It was kind of like,
"Okay, it's going to be fine.
[741]
If you have more problems,
just call me back."
[744]
And come to find out
my liver had shut down,
[746]
my kidneys were shot,
like, everything was failing.
[751]
So the second time,
was it my son,
[753]
went in for a routine C-section.
[755]
You know,
everything was going perfect.
[757]
Then something happened.
[760]
Dr. Pickett, it's amazing,
when my heart stopped,
[762]
for whatever reason,
actually was right there.
[765]
Like, whether it was
compressions or shocking me
[768]
or whatever, like,
she was there.
[771]
When I first came to,
I didn't even remember
[774]
that I had a baby.
[775]
Once I was extubated
and able to,
[777]
like, really hold him,
I just feel like everything
[779]
just got better.
[781]
Them bringing him,
and I could see his face,
[783]
and I could hold him against me.
[784]
I think that was
the turning point for me.
[787]
To see the staff members,
like, emotional,
[789]
it kind of let me know, like,
[790]
"Oh, yeah, they did
everything they could do."
[793]
-My nurses are some of
the most loving, giving women.
[798]
So when Alquita coded, well,
[800]
they decided to keep him
in the nursery at our hospital,
[804]
and they loved on that
baby every day.
[807]
And the night
that I discharged Alquita,
[810]
I can count at least
three nurses
[812]
who just burst into tears,
[814]
who were, "I'm not ready,
we weren't prepared for this."
[817]
They are so eager to see him
[819]
that they wanted to throw him
a first birthday party.
[822]
Look at this.
[824]
Oh, my gosh.
[827]
Look at this.
[828]
You can feel it.
[830]
[ Laughing ]
[833]
That is the coolest thing.
I love that.
[837]
-All doctors to the E.R.
[840]
-What's going on?
[842]
Hey, hey, hey.
Start the ticket.
[844]
What's happening?
[845]
-We have a patient on the floor
[847]
whose fatal heart tones
are down.
[848]
Dr. Adams-Pickett
is going back to the O.R.
[851]
to open up for another doctor
in an emergency situation.
[854]
-Okay.
[856]
Hey, sir, we're gonna
try to get someone in there.
[857]
Hi. I'm Dr. Adams-Pickett.
[859]
We're gonna have to
get your wife
[861]
into delivery really quickly
because her baby's heart rate
[865]
is down and it's not coming up.
[868]
鈾櫔
[878]
-Getting close. You're next door
out of the race.
[882]
This job is the best job
in the world.
[886]
And some days, it's like
being inside the dryer
[890]
getting tumbled around.
[891]
鈾櫔
[899]
All right, your starting
the contractions.
[901]
Take a deep breath, hold it.
[903]
Push like you got to push.
[906]
-[ Groans ]
[907]
-Push normally.
[909]
Push. Don't breathe.
Hold your breath and push.
[913]
Again. One more time.
-[ Groans ]
[915]
-Push. I'm beginning to see
baby's head a little bit.
[918]
-[ Groans ]
-Push.
[920]
-5, 6, 7, 8...
[924]
-[ Screams ]
-Almost there.
[926]
It's gonna burn.
-[ Gasps ]
[927]
-Push through that burn.
-Push through that burn.
[929]
-Push through it.
-Little more.
[930]
We're almost -- come on, push.
[934]
-Push through that burn.
-Come on, you're so close.
[936]
Come on.
-Give it all you've got,
[937]
all you've got right now.
-One more big push.
[940]
Stop pushing.
[942]
Breathe.
[944]
-Take a deep breath, okay?
[946]
-Baby's head's out.
[947]
-Push.
[949]
-Almost out. Push, push, push.
[951]
-Got to push, get him out.
[953]
-[ Grunting ]
-Oh, my God!
[955]
-[ Gasps ]
[956]
-Look down here, Mama.
[958]
-[ Gasps ]
[959]
-There he is.
-[ Panting ]
[962]
-That is a boy.
[965]
-[ Breathing heavily ]
-Excellent job!
[970]
Everything with delivering
a baby is just so cool.
[974]
It's 90% sheer joy
and 10% sheer panic.
[978]
I have done this 38 years,
and I never get tired of it.
[982]
It's the best thing
in the world.
[984]
-Your baby is fine.
Your baby is just fine.
[988]
-My gosh, he's a chunky monkey.
[991]
-She was like 5-12.
-Uh-huh.
[994]
-I don't know what she
was doing in there.
[997]
Look at her.
[999]
Congratulations.
-Now you know, now you know.
[1001]
-We got into the operating
room emergently.
[1005]
We made a decision at 28,
and we had a baby at 29.
[1009]
[ Laughing ] So, it was...
[1012]
And she was she was holding on
to her umbilical cord
[1015]
like it was a bungee jump
or something like that.
[1018]
And I think that's why
her heart rate went down.
[1022]
But, so this is the life of
an OB, so unpredictable.
[1029]
And I have to tell baby Liam
that he saved this baby's life
[1034]
because if I weren't here,
[1036]
I don't know if our little baby
would have made it, and...
[1040]
There he --
look at all the hair!
[1043]
Oh, my goodness!
[1044]
[ Laughs ]
[1046]
[ Speaking indistinctly ]
[1048]
Hey, sugar!
[1050]
I'm the first set of hands
to ever touch you.
[1054]
-That's right.
-That was me.
[1056]
Georgia doesn't have
the only maternal mortality
[1060]
in the United States.
[1061]
Every other state
in this country
[1064]
needs to prioritize mothers
and their health.
[1069]
And until it becomes a priority,
it's just going to worsen.
[1073]
You just saved that baby's life.
[1076]
Did you know -- Oh!
[1082]
-When you have a bad outcome
when everybody expected
[1084]
a joyous event, it's obviously
traumatic for the family,
[1088]
but it's traumatic for all
the healthcare providers.
[1092]
If we allow more labor
and delivery units to close
[1097]
and if we don't adequately
replace obstetricians
[1100]
as they retire,
there will be more deaths.
[1109]
-There's no statistic
that can quantify what it's like
[1112]
to tell an 18-month-old that
his mother's never coming home.
[1118]
My wife deserved better.
[1120]
Women all over this country
deserve better.
[1124]
鈾櫔
[1136]
鈾櫔
[1149]
[ Laughter ]
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