A northern Illinois community group that focuses on the well-being of African American and Latino foster children is highlighting a different issue for one of those groups.
Jillisa Bondurant is a member of the Winnebago County Action Teamand the program director for the Winnebago County Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program. She is Black. She shares her childbirth story.
“I suffer from asthma. So, it's like I'm lying flat on my back with this baby just on all my organs and just pressing down, didn't end up dilating,” she explained. “And then the next morning, they wake me up and the doctor's like, ‘hey, so we're going to bring you in for emergency C section.’”
She said at this point her blood pressure had dropped dangerously low and her heart rate was extremely high. She mentioned that she told the nurse the night before that she needed to sit up.
“I would sit my bed up, even though I wasn't supposed to. I would roll over because like, I'm in childbirth, like, I'm not comfortable,” Bondurant said. “I'm trying to get as comfortable as I can until the baby's supposed to arrive. And like, she would just come back and just like lay my bed flat.”
Bondurant said the nurse explained that she had to stay that way so that the baby could be seen on the monitor. Bondurant expressed that she didn’t feel supported and didn’t know she could have asked for an advocate to speak up for her.
Bondurant and her child are OK, but some birth stories have a very different ending.
Infant mortality rates show the number of infant deaths before the age of 1, for every 1,000 births. The Winnebago County Action Team is having Zoom conversations for the next four months that focus on these rates for African Americans in the county. The series is called “Infant and Maternal Mortality Rates among African American and Latino mothers and their infants.”
The first discussion was more of a data analysis. It took place on Jan.19.
Mike Bacon is a former director of the Public Health for the Winnebago County Department of Public Health. During the Zoom, he shared data from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
“We've really taken a quick look at a very narrow portion of early childhood health outcome data,” he explained. “And it suggests that we've have some serious work that we need to continue to do, as we always have been across many sectors in our community.”
This information showed a seven-year average from 2011 to 2017, for the county’s infant mortality rate. It stated that the rate for Blacks in the county is three times greater than Hispanics and two times greater than white infants.
“I am simultaneously very saddened and incredibly angry. Because it doesn't have to be like this,” Bob Babcock, community activist and organizer said. “I believe -- and this is my opinion -- I think many people would agree with me that we're seeing the impact of poverty, unnecessary poverty, and the impact of racism.”
He said the way the healthcare system is set up isn’t helping make this rate better. Babcock said healthcare is tied to insurance, which is sometimes tied to employment and because of this, some marginalized individuals don’t have access to the care that they need.
Bacon said it doesn’t all fall on the shoulders of the healthcare system. He said although that is critical, it is also important that people focus on things that need to be done in the community. This includes offering resources for families.
Bondurant said one of the missions for the action team is to bring people together so they can talk about their stories with the goal of helping others. She said these relationships can open a pathway for the group to learn the roadblocks and hardships that people are experiencing. From there, the action team can identify services that are already available or find other ways to help.
Bondurant suggested hearing other birth stories beforehand would have made her experience more pleasant.
She also mentioned that the team is looking for more health care people to join the group.
“They can talk about what they're doing and figure out ways that we can increase some of their services so they can better serve the population,” she suggested, “or connect up with like maybe another hospital or another organization that's doing something similar, so we can increase the efficacy of the services and the efforts in our area.”
The next session in the series takes place Feb. 16 and will include neonatal specialists. Sessions will continue every third Wednesday of the month through May. More information can be found on the action team’s Facebook page.
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
