Passing this act in Congress can help end stillbirths like my son’s
By Ana Vick in the Charlotte Observer
December 15, 2022
“We aren’t talking about the realities of this risk for every pregnancy, and we should be so that every expectant parent has a fighting chance to prevent it. After our son died following his “textbook” perfect pregnancy, our providers were just as shocked as we were. They were quick to want to brush off Owen’s death claiming that “sometimes healthy babies just die.” Our doctors did nothing to help us figure out why our son had died.”
These 2 moms lost their babies. Now they’ve teamed up to end preventable stillbirths
Oct. 21, 2021, 4:31 PM EDT / Source: TODAY By Meghan Holohan
“I said, God, please don’t take me. I need to be here for my daughter, my husband, my little boy. Please protect them,’” Vick said. “When I woke up … they said, ‘We are sorry he didn’t make it.’ I cried like a wounded animal.”
Vick grappled with the thought that “sometimes healthy babies just die” and tried finding answers.
“I’d researched it all. I stayed up every night. I was losing my mind,” she said. “There has to be some reason.”
The two feel so passionate about PUSH because they want to help people avoid the devastation they faced.
“It feels like we’re swept under the rug and so many of us are just told to go away after it happens, ‘Sorry, go have another baby,’” Vick said. “And we’re not given any information as to what happened. So how are we supposed to avoid it again as stillbirth actually reoccurs more often.”
“Your voice in this matters because you’re actually the one with your baby all day and these doctors want to do what’s best for your baby, too.”
Ana Vick (today)
Tik Tok Learned These Women Were Pregnant. Things Got Scary.
May 25, 2022 / Source: LA Times
“Many of us don’t even know the word ‘stillbirth’ until it happens to us,” Vick said.
Ana Vick (LA Times)
NC families say state leaders can do more to help reduce infant deaths
Oct. 21, 2021 / Source: CBS17: Reported by: Michael Hyland
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN)
As state leaders try to negotiate a new budget, families who lost their children during pregnancy or in the months following birth, urged them on Tuesday to take steps to try to drive down North Carolina’s infant mortality rate and to improve health care for parents.
Ana Vick, who experienced two miscarriages, had a stillborn son named Owen in 2015.
“Too many times I just wanted to kiss and hug Owen, but I had to become used to holding this weighted bear instead,” she said. “Every family deserves the best care available, but sadly that can depend on what is covered by insurance, your provider and even your race.”
In North Carolina, about 830 babies are lost to stillbirth on average each year, according to the program Count the Kicks.
Vick joined other advocates in calling for state leaders to fund education programs for parents, improve health care access and authorize a tax credit for families to help cover the cost of funeral expenses when they lose a child.
Advocates seek to reduce stillbirths, infant loss in NC
Oct. 19, 2021, 12:17 PM EDT / Source: WRAL By Laura Leslie, WRAL Capitol Bureau chief
Advocates for families who’ve lost unborn or infant children are calling on state leaders to do more to prevent stillbirths, miscarriages, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
At a news conference Tuesday morning, advocates said around 800 stillbirths happen every year in North Carolina. They say more education and better preventive care for pregnant women could cut that number in half.
Ana Vick and her husband, Joshua, lost their son Owen to stillbirth and also endured two miscarriages. They weren’t given a cause and were told “sometimes healthy babies just die.” They said closer monitoring, even of “low-risk” pregnancies, as hers was classified, is needed, as well as better doctor training.
“It should shock you to hear that there are 23,000 stillbirths a year in our developed nation. That is 65 a day, the number of children on a school bus, that are not making it home,” Ana Vick said. “The fact that we have one of the worst rates of reduction of stillbirths of any developed nation is shameful.”
Mujeres y bebés de color en EEUU, víctimas de racismo sistémico
Oct. 21, 2022 / Source: Hispan TV
El racismo sistémico y la incompetencia en el sistema de salud en Estados Unidos ocasiona alrededor de 23 mil muertes de bebés en las últimas 20 semanas del embarazo. Según la enciclopedia médica, un mortinato es un bebé que muere en el útero durante las últimas 20 semanas del embarazo. Esta situación se presenta por diversas causas, sin embargo un gran porcentaje de las muertes son prevenibles mediante la implementación de ciertos protocolos de atención de salud básica.
Increíblemente, en Estados Unidos —a falta de dichos protocolos— más de 23 mil bebés mueren cada año. Según cifras de los investigadores, buena parte de los casos de mortinatos transcurren bajo alguna forma de negligencia médica o exclusión basada en el racismo sistémico. Esta madre hispana perdió a su bebé. A pesar de los esfuerzos de los médicos y otros para hacerle callar y olvidar, ella demanda respuestas ante las autoridades que supuestamente velan por los derechos de los ciudadanos.
Cuando le es conveniente, a Estados Unidos le gusta criticar el tratamiento de las mujeres en otros países, sin embargo —aquí en casa propia— a las mujeres de comunidades negras e inmigrantes se les obliga a “callarse”, a “aguantarse” la muerte de sus bebés a manos de médicos incompetentes y un sistema privatizado de salud que solo persigue ganancias, todo ello bajo el amparo del racismo institucionalizado.
Marcelo Sánchez, Washington.
Press Inquiries
Email: ana@pushpregnancy.org