Did you know that black women in our area are five times as likely to die in childbirth? That’s according to the state’s Department of Health Services.

Factors that lead to these life-threatening disparities include the quality of health care, chronic conditions and structural racism and bias, according to the CDC. In Brown County, Black women receive the lowest rates of first-trimester health care and are most likely to have premature births. For women of color like Outagamie County resident Amy Woods, having her four babies was definitely not the storybook birthing experience we often see romantically portrayed in movies and television. 

In this episode we’ll hear Amy’s story and how these shocking statistics were recently reported by an award-winning journalist who helped bring this issue to light for Northeast Wisconsin, and hope for a healthier future for moms and their babies.