Husband Fights Black Maternal Mortality And Health Care Inequality

Find out more about the ARIAH Foundation. Watch the documentary “Aftershock” here. Learn more about Shawnee Benton Gibson’s work. More information about maternal mortality rates here and here.

Transcript

Shamony Gibson came into this world with her eyes wide open. Her mother Shawnee Benton-Gibson recalled the day. Her husband was working so Shawnee’s grandmother drove her to the hospital.

SHAWNEE: She dropped me and she was like, I'll be back. I'm going to go get my stuff and come back, cause she thought I was going to be in labor a long time. And she left. And within 45 minutes I gave birth and I gave birth in a room without attendants like the baby was coming out. And then they came and they were like, Oh my God, the baby is here. And then when she came out, she came out with eyes wide open and she came out releasing her first stool. Shawnee She was ready, ready, like, I've released my bowels. I got my eyes open. I think she was crying…came here ready.PAUSE

From day one Shawnee says her daughter spoke her mind.

SHAWNEE: Shamony, very fiery energy. And what I mean by that is, since she was a baby and was able to vocalize whether it was words or uttering actions like babble, just like really loud and expressive.

She says Shamony was creative and loved to dance. She was opinionated and unapologetically herself. Her sister and friends saw her as someone they could go to for guidance, support, and straight talk.

SHAWNEE:  When she spoke, like she commanded space and spoke her mind very much like me, which would sometimes be unnerving. I'm a pretty direct person, so to have that coming at me sometimes and her checking me and putting me in my place … 

Shamony loved being a mother. Here she is singing with her daughter Anari.

AUDIO OF SHAMONY AND ANARI 

Shamony was a fierce protector of her two children.

SHAWNEE: She was just no joke when it came to her child's care and well-being from the, you know, breastfeeding and just making sure that she studied. She was a researcher and a thinker. So being a parent to her meant that she had to engage in uncomfortable spaces, speak up, speak out.

This is a story about Shamony Gibson and the many women like her who died a preventable death and how their loved ones are doing everything they can to prevent more losses.

This is 2 Lives. I’m Laurel Morales.

Omari And Shamony Fall In Love

Omari Maynard easily recalls the first time he set eyes on Shamony Gibson. They both worked for the Police Athletic League in Harlem as mentors to teens. 

OMARI: I was in the bleachers. I remember seeing her walking across to the the court, the basketball court, where we were all kind of … congregating. And I was like, wow, you know, she's beautiful. 

But they worked at different locations, so it wasn’t until two years later that they were placed at the same site.

A friendship quickly developed. Omari had a son from a previous relationship.

OMARI: She appreciated the way that I took care of my son and the attention that I showed my son and what she saw when we had a summer camp together. And she was like, you know, that was what essentially kind of drew her to me. Yeah. LAUREL: And what drew you to her? OMARI: She was funny. She was funny. She was stern. And she did take any mess. You know, she was really like, you know, because like I said, she was a beautiful young woman. And, you know, she would always make it a point that to make sure that people understood and knew that she was more than just, you know, a pretty face. We'd just sit in the car and just talk for hours and hours. 

Initially it was just a summer fling… After several months Shamony told Omari she wanted a serious relationship.

OMARI: We reconnected. And then, you know, we was like, no, we can try to do this relationship thing again. But at that point, though, she was like, you know, like, I'm not trying to play around. This is not going to be like a for the summer thing, you know, for the winter thing. Like she said it was before, she was like, if we're going to do this, then, you know, we have to be together together.

They decided to start their own business Art-fulliving that played on Omari’s strengths as an artist and Shamony’s skills as an entrepreneur. She had a drive like he’d never seen. 

OMARI: If you want to do something, you just got to do it. You know, you just got to do it. And a way will be made. I still felt the need to have a check. I still like I need to have a check and we need to have health insurance and I need to have this for a one care and retirement plan... Her simple question was, do we really, you know, and do we care? And her thing was like, is there anything that's given to you that we can't create ourselves, we can't do ourselves? 

LAUREL: It sounds like Shamony, his defiance and boldness and courage really inspired you. OMARI:  Yes. Yes, most definitely. Most definitely. You know, one thing about her, she was never afraid to let me know how she felt. She was never afraid to speak her mind. 

Shamony And Omari Start A Family

In May of 2016 Shamony found out she was pregnant. Omari says that put the relationship on fast forward.

OMARI: When you're you know, when you throw a child into a fairly new relationship, you know, and have to really make some grown up decisions, you know, you learn a lot about a person, you know, and you learn a lot about yourself, too. There were times where I was like, I'm done. Like, I just did not it, you know, I didn't sign up for this and, you know, and, and vice versa, LAUREL:  Yeah, throw some hormones into the mix. OMARI: Yeah, right. LAUREL: That makes it really easy. OMARI: Yeah, right. For real.

Shamony’s mom Shawnee is a coach, counselor, reproductive rights advocate, among other things. She had been hosting an annual Mother Way Conference for a decade, where she led discussions about traumatic births. So Shamony had been exposed to this knowledge of healthcare inequality among the BIPOC community for much of her life. 

In December of 2016 Shamony went into labor but wasn’t progressing very quickly so the doctor prescribed pitocin. That triggered a series of issues, which led to a C section.  

OMARI: I felt helpless in the sense that they were diagnosing her with with and telling us that she had issues, that I just really felt that she didn't have people up because of the, because of what the doctors were saying. There was nothing I could really do is really listen and kind of go with all the scare tactics that they were kind of throwing at me.  

Finally after several hours Shamony and Omari met their baby Anari But the doctor said the baby’s eyes weren’t focusing properly and took her to the neonatal intensive care unit, so Shamony couldn’t breastfeed her or bond with the baby the way she wanted to.

OMARI: We were not only were we not heard, we were, you know, told and and not necessarily explained. Frankly, taken advantage of. We were just ready to get out of the hospital and just thankful that when we did that, you know, we were covered by community.

Shamony And Omari Create Birth Plan For Second Baby

Three years later when they discovered they were having a second baby they decided to be more prepared.

OMARI: We were ready in terms of having all our experiences with Anari and, you know, understanding the signs and what to look for and things to do as a couple and what we wanted as a family. You know, we were we were ready in that sense 

They researched the best midwife who was a woman of color, hired a doula, and wrote up a birth plan. They wanted to have a home birth and, if they needed to go to the hospital, they specified one with a low cesarean rate. They felt ready and excited and Anari was looking forward to being a big sister.

OMARI: I was just really excited about having a family, having a family, and knowing that again, all the trials and tribulations that we went through, you know, in our own personal relationship and with Anari, you know, those are things of the past that we all grew and learned from. And we can enjoy our lives together.That was like kind of the first time in my life where I felt like this is where we want to be.

September 23, 2019

Shamony had just turned 30 and she was in good shape going for walks and to Africa dance class every week. She and Omari signed up for birthing classes and made meals that were good for the baby.

OMARI: You know, making sure that, you know, she prepared her body for for birth, you know, for delivery. You know, we we did all we did all the things… So when her water broke, you know, we set everything up. We were ready. But again, same thing as when we were giving birth to Anari. She wasn't dilating. She wasn't dilating. And then the contractions stopped Shamony just kind of hindsight was suffering from, you know, weathering and the traumas that her mother had to face during pregnancy and the traumas that her mother's mother faced during pregnancy.

LAUREL: Her body was puttin’ on the brakes. OMARI: Exactly.

So Shamony was transferred to a hospital.

OMARI: At that point, the nurses at the hospital did as much as they could do to try to honor our plans. But she just didn't she wasn't dilating and she was like, you know, we got to do something. So we ended up having another C-section with Khari. I remember the doctor doing the C-section and saying that it was taking a long time to get through the scar tissue from her previous C-section, you know, So she was suffering from what was called webbing, which is getting through the scar tissue and the uterine lining… He ended up also taking out Shamony’s fibroids…And I've learned that that's a whole separate surgery, you know, like it's a whole separate surgery because of the simple fact that, you know, now you are leaving the uterus, opening to having more air. 

Khari finally came into the world, a healthy baby boy.

Shamony Is Ignored And Denied Care

In the days that followed Shamony found it was hard to catch her breath. It was difficult for her to walk and to have a conversation. She went back to the hospital twice – once to get her staples removed and another time to check the newborn, Shamony told them how she felt but they dismissed her and told her to take it easy.

When she got home, she called her mom Shawnee.  

SHAWNEE: When she first started sharing about the breathing issues my immediate thought was pulmonary embolism… I was like Shamony, it sounds like this to me. And she was like, no, I spoke to them and they ruled that out. They said they checked me in the hospital … So I went with what she said because it's like, once again, her body, her experience, her conversations. I reached out to the person that was the head of the labor and delivery because I know them from my work. And I was like, ‘listen, this is what she's saying. And I'm concerned. Should she come to the hospital?’ And the person was like, ‘no, she's probably doing too much. She needs to rest and put her feet up,’ which is the worst thing you could ever do when you have blood clots in your anywhere you know, in your legs is like lay down and be sedentary is not the way to go. But I listened because I heard what Shamony said about what the doctors told her at the hospital. And I also was like trying to listen to this person who's an expert in their field. 

But Omari was worried.

OMARI: She couldn't make it up the steps. She ended up like collapsing on the steps and she was having sharp, sharp chest pains and we ended up having to sit down on the first floor for hours, you know, and just having her rest and relax. 

Several days passed like this with Shamony feeling fatigued and having trouble breathing. Friends and family frequently stopped by to meet the new baby and to bring food. On the 13th day Shamony’s mom, sister, and aunt came over with dinner. 

OMARI: We were at the house and we were eating and we were joking and watching TV. And then. And then she just looks at me. She's like, I think I need to go to the hospital now. Like, my chest is, like, really, really hurting. So I go into the other room and I start packing the bag so that we can we can go. 

SHAWNEE: And then within another few minutes I saw her eyes go really big and she was like in the room but out of the room. So I ran in the kitchen and I filled up a bowl full of water. And I ran and I threw it on her because she looked like she was in shock... I was like, ‘don't die on us.’ And it was just like not literally thinking she would. And she was like, Mom, be quiet because she knew what was happening in her body... She was like, I'm bleeding out. I'm bleeding out. So she was like in a state of shock.

It turns out she was in cardiac arrest. Omari called 911 and the paramedics arrived within minutes. Shawnee told them Shamony just had a C-section; and she believed she had a pulmonary embolism.

SHAWNEE:  I'm like, in this state of like, I need to tell them so that I can support the process. Right? And they're ignoring what we're saying. And they keep asking the they ask twice whether she was on drugs. I'm like, No … 

A second paramedic arrived, and then a third.

SHAWNEE: Each time they came, they asked about drugs. And I'm like, Dude, like I shared with your colleagues, she's not on drugs. 

OMARI: Them coming to the house and asking us if she was on any drugs and just being frustrated …She's coding, you know, multiple times and still haven't had any movement of getting her out the house and to a hospital that could help and provided the support that she needed. 

Omari and Shawnee were both in a panic just wanting Shamony to get the care she needed.

OMARI: When it comes down to saving lives, you know, seconds, you know matter, you know, minutes, these minutes matter. And, you know, we're wasting time explaining ourselves that we should have been spending time getting her to the proper care that she needed.

Finally they got her in the ambulance with Omari. He sees they’re driving to the closest hospital, which normally would be ideal, but this was a rundown facility.

OMARI: I was in the ambulance…telling them that I want them to go to a different hospital. But they said that because that isn't the closest hospital, the protocol is to take her to go to the closest one. 

Once they got her to the hospital Omari and Shawnee tried to get her moved to a better facility but they needed to stabilize her first.

SHAWNEE: They couldn't move her until they stabilized her. So it was just like the minutes, the time that's going by. And, you know, I just know how it works. And like, the clots are getting bigger. And the the fact that she went into cardiac arrest, I was thinking about the oxygen to her brain. Like, all of these things are running through me, but I'm also filing away what they're doing and saying, which is like is so unfair that I had to do that while simultaneously being concerned about my daughter and my family. 

OMARI: I'm praying and crying and crying and praying and just hoping that, you know, they can get her to a state in which they can, you know, revive her.... Very fearful of just the unknown and not knowing what. What was going to happen.

Dozens of family and friends showed up flooding Shamony with support.

OMARI: We're just kind of rotating and taking turns, being in the room with her and. And, you know, just praying or everybody just just praying for the best. And, you know, there were times where it thought that, okay, you know, she's showing some signs of recovering. And, you know, the pulse is getting a little bit stronger. But there was never a point where she was able to breathe on her own without a ventilator. We're there, where everybody's talking to her. We're hoping that she can hear us, but she's not responsive. You know, she's not showing any signs. She's not moving any toes or fingers.

So Omari sat by her side and held her hand and talked to her through the night.

OMARI: I'm here. I'm with you. I'm here with you. You know, everything's going to be okay. You know, the babies are going to be good. You know, we're waiting for you to wake up so we can get out of here and, you know, go back to living our life. 

Within hours after she arrived the doctor told Omari Shamony wasn’t likely to recover.

OMARI: And even if she does recover, she's probably going to be essentially a vegetable because of the fact that she wasn't getting enough oxygen to her brain at this point.

The following morning she went into another episode of cardiac arrest. For almost an hour medical practitioners gave Shamony chest compressions, steroid shots, and performed CPR.

OMARI: That was a very, very. Overwhelmingly traumatic experience, just seeing the sweat dripping of EMT work. I mean, these are, you know, practitioners trying to get her heart to start pumping again. And I mean, hundreds, hundreds of needles just use needles just lined up around her body and, you know, watching her gain at least 20 pounds, you know, within an hour because of all that was out there, that it was to the point where people were like they were like spheres, ovals. And her tongue couldn't fit in her mouth anymore. 

On October 6, 2019, Shamony died of a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot that travels to the lungs – a relatively common complication to surgery but one that could have been prevented if anyone had heard her.

In the moments after she died Shawnee gathered the friends and family into Shamony’s hospital room.

SHAWNEE: About 25 of us surrounded her bed and we did a ritual. So her body was still warm and we were still doing what we know to do as a family, a clan to cover her. So that really made me feel grounded and aligned. The anger didn't set in until later.

Omari tried to explain to their three year old daughter that mom wasn’t coming home.

OMARI: So her really understanding that her mother wasn't coming back, you know, is it's a it's a conversation that we had to have multiple times. At the time it was, it was a lot. And I want to say, you know, maybe a day later or two days later, I just remember giving her a bath and, you know, she was screaming out for her mother like, ‘Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, where are you, Mommy?’ As a parent, I had to do everything in my own physical body to just kind of tune that out and just get through the tasks so that I just don't break down. And let her know that, you know, our family dynamic has now forever changed. You know, it won't ever be what it what it was. It won't ever be what it's supposed to be. It will never be what it should be. 

Omari And Shawnee Fight For Better Health Care

In the days that followed Omari received the death certificate. It said she had died of a pulmonary embolism and something else … obesity.

OMARI: When, you know, she wasn't an in any way, shape or form, you know, obese at all. And one she just gave birth 13 days prior. And and two, you know, like I said, she was pumped full of fluids to the point where she was pretty much unrecognizable … Now understanding how and the things that, you know, the health care system does in order to, you know, cover cover their own asses, you know, and making sure that, you know, if they put obese, then obviously the reasons why she is in this hospital and and has these complications is because of the fact that she wasn't taking care of herself. 

They went into this birth equipped with a birth plan, a midwife, a doula, and knowledge.

OMARI: Information, knowledge that does not save you… I also didn't think that it would be my own lived experience, you know, So it doesn't protect you from it actually happening to you. It showed us the power of the system in which we are fighting against and the need to continue to fight. There are thousands of Shamonys, you know, there are thousands and thousands of women who are suffering, who have suffered in the same way that she did, and families who have, you know, been affected by, you know, health care, poor health care. 

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate than any developed country. Black women are four times more likely – and in New York eight times more likely – to die as a result of pregnancy or childbirth related complications compared to white women. According to the CDC 60% of pregnancy related deaths are preventable. 

In the months that followed Shawnee was still processing her grief but realized Shamony’s story may help bring awareness to these racial disparities.

SHAWNEE: And I realized that I had all of these black folk, BIPOC folk and white folk that were watching virtually and in the live space. So I wanted to talk about reproductive justice and birth inequity and the crisis of black maternal health in this country.

A documentary filmmaker learned about Shamony’s story and reached out to the family.

PLAY CLIP FROM “AFTERSHOCK”

Omari, Shawnee, and Shamony’s sister Jasmine created the ARIAH Foundation to educate, support, and advocate for BIPOC families like theirs.

OMARI: And the ARIAH Foundation stands for the Advancement of Reproductive Innovation through Artistry and Healing. So, you know, we were actively using art as a way to heal, as a way to communicate, as a way to create conversation and dialog around maternal health, infant health, you know, reproductive justice, social justice issues. 

Omari formed a support group for black men who have lost their partners.

OMARI: There isn't many places or many people who we can feel comfortable talking to you know, when it comes down to our own intimate, emotional thoughts and feelings and understanding that the people we're speaking to actually know what we're going through. 

He realized it was important for them to share their stories so they could connect the dots.

OMARI: …really figuring out ways to reimagine the system in which is failing our people, so, so often, way too often. 

Shamony Lives On Through Omari’s Art, Their Children

In Omari’s home Shamony is still very present. In every room Omari has painted and hung a picture of her.

OMARI: Before you get into our apartment, there's one in the living room. There's one in her bedroom. There's one that I have hanging up downstairs on the first floor in the living room, you know? So any way you turn, you know, she's. She's here. She's ever present.

Omari takes his phone into the living room and points the camera at a painting called “Transition.”

OMARI: These birds right here were actually silhouettes of birds that she had in her room. And, you know, they are transitioning from being her shadow into. These birds that are now symbolizing her, you know, her evolution.

Anari, who is now seven, likes to draw and paint too. And often she’ll want to show her mom what she’s made.

OMARI: If we're taking a picture together, record a video of them. She says, Send that's a mommy. Send. That's a mommy. And I'm like, in my brain, like, how am I going to send it to them? And like, even thinking like this, is that what she's saying? But she knows exactly what she's saying, you know? And she knows that, yes, my mom is not here, but, you know, she is still a part of her of our family. And she is also very much a part of this moment.

Omari plans to co create paintings of Shamony with their kids.

OMARI: It opens up so much, at least for me personally, for one artist, because there are they do things and use colors and space in a way that I just don't because I'm so. Old gray. And so, you know, set in my ways. My goal is yeah right exactly is to expose them as much as I can to a life of creativity and a life of being able to, you know, utilize their own gifts and talents.

This is 2 Lives. I’m Laurel Morales.