by Jeroslyn JoVonn
January 17, 2026
New analysis identifies Harris County Texas as one of many deadliest locations within the U.S. for Black girls to present start.
New analysis exhibits Harris County is probably the most harmful place within the U.S. for Black girls to present start, with maternal and toddler loss of life charges which have at occasions surpassed each Texas and nationwide averages.
A current research by native public well being officers discovered that from 2016 to 2020, Black girls in Harris County had a maternal mortality fee of 83.4 deaths per 100,000 reside births — the best within the nation, Capital B Information stories. In 2020, the nationwide fee was 55.3 for Black girls and 19.1 for white girls.
Toddler mortality for Black infants in Harris County was additionally alarming: 11.66 deaths per 1,000 births from 2016 to 2020, in contrast with a nationwide fee of 5.4 per 1,000 in 2020. The alarming charges in Harris County have pushed public well being officers, researchers, and advocacy teams to accentuate efforts to know why Black moms and infants are dying at such disproportionately excessive charges within the space.
Specialists say addressing the disaster for Black moms requires systemic points, together with racial bias, unequal well being care entry, delays in therapy, and gaps in care. Houston OB-GYN Esohe Religion Ohuoba mentioned the disparities largely stem from social determinants of well being.
“Issues like entry to high quality care, monetary stability, housing, training, and even the stress that comes from navigating systemic inequities,” she mentioned, including how giant the state of Texas is as one other issue.
A significant component, Ohuba mentioned, is the excessive ranges of poor communication between a affected person and a health care provider.
“It can be crucial that we’re listening to sufferers, answering their questions, and paying shut consideration to their signs,” she mentioned. “That’s the place the standard of care and communication from the well being care crew turns into important. Was the affected person heard? Had been warning indicators acknowledged, and was therapy well timed?”
As of 2024, Black girls are 3 times extra doubtless than white girls to die from pregnancy-related causes, with over 80% of those deaths thought of preventable, in keeping with the CDC. Specialists say addressing the disaster requires confronting its root trigger: racism throughout the medical system.
“Typically it’s about systemic gaps in communication, cultural consciousness, and belief,” Ohuoba mentioned. “However the end result is similar: Girls of coloration don’t all the time obtain the identical degree of consideration or intervention as others.”
From 2019 to 2024, maternal morbidity charges in Texas rose 24.5%, whereas Harris County noticed a good bigger improve of 34.7%, in keeping with an evaluation by Teresa Do of the College of Texas at Austin. Native hospitals, together with Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Heart, Texas Youngsters’s Pavilion for Girls, Harris Well being Ben Taub, and the Girls’s Hospital of Texas, reported among the many highest charges, partially as a result of they deal with probably the most complicated, high-risk circumstances.
In 2024, Memorial Hermann recorded roughly 250 extreme maternal morbidity circumstances per 10,000 deliveries. Hospitals say they’re taking steps to deal with disparities, similar to Memorial Hermann’s maternal well being entry committee and Texas Youngsters’s high quality‑assurance and efficiency‑enchancment assessment of each case.
Black girls are additionally main efforts to enhance maternal well being. Rayna Reid Rayford based Pregnant and Black, a nonprofit that connects Black expectant moms with culturally competent care, advocates, and assets by way of a cellular app launching April 11 throughout Black Maternal Well being Week.
Kay Matthews began The Shades of Blue Challenge in 2013, 4 months after dropping a stillborn little one, to boost consciousness of the hyperlink between toddler loss and psychological well being.
“It’s going to take extra funding to permit the Black-led entities to take the helm and transfer the work ahead. We’d like funding,” mentioned Angela Doyinsola Aina, co-founder and govt director of the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, which created the “Black Maternal Well being Week” motion in 2016.
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