die at three to four times the rate of white mothers, one of the widest of all racial disparities in women's health. According to the CDC, black mothers in the U.S. have alarmed researchers, one statistic has been especially concerning. In recent years, as high rates of maternal mortality in the U.S. Then they folded it into a precise triangle small enough for Wanda and Samuel to hold next to their hearts. Honor Guard removed the flag from Shalon's coffin and held it aloft. The memorial service drew to a close, the bugle strains of taps as plaintive as a howl. When you remember this child, you remember the love that God has pushed down through her for all of us. "Her mother is in each and every one of you, each and every one of us. "People say to me, 'She won't know her mother.' That's not true," Sellers said. Sometimes Samuel held Soleil, or one of Shalon's friends. Sometimes she held Soleil, fussing with her pink blanket. She sat in the front row in a black suit and veiled hat, her face a portrait of unfathomable grief. Wanda Irving had been especially close to her daughter - role model, traveling companion, emotional touchstone. Shalon's long-divorced parents had already buried both their sons she had been their last remaining child. If a village this powerful hadn't been able to protect her, was any black woman safe? in sociology, her two master's degrees and dual-subject Ph.D., her gold-plated insurance and rock-solid support system - had not been enough to ensure her survival. The main federal agency seeking to understand why so many American women - especially black women - die, or nearly die from complications of pregnancy and childbirth had lost one of its own.Įven Shalon's many advantages - her B.A. today: disproportionately high rates of maternal mortality. The researcher working to eradicate disparities in health access and outcomes had become a symbol of one of the most troublesome health disparities facing black women in the U.S. Three weeks after giving birth, Shalon collapsed and died from complications of high blood pressure. Her discovery in mid-2016 that she was pregnant with her first child had been unexpected and thrilling. Much of Shalon's research had focused on how childhood experiences affect health later on - examining how kids' lives went off track, searching for ways to make them more resilient. Has The Worst Rate Of Maternal Deaths In The Developed World Lost Mothers: Maternal Mortality In The U.S. "To kind of uncover and undo the victim-blaming that sometimes happens where it's like, 'Poor people don't care about their health.' " Her Twitter bio declared: "I see inequity wherever it exists, call it by name, and work to eliminate it." "She wanted to expose how people's limited health options were leading to poor health outcomes," said Rashid Njai, her mentor at the agency. There she had focused on trying to understand how structural inequality, trauma and violence made people sick. I've never seen so many Ph.D.s."Īt 36, Shalon had been part of their elite ranks - an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the pre-eminent public health institution in the U.S. "I've never been in a room with so many doctors," he marveled. Shalon's father, Samuel, surveyed the rows of somber faces from the lectern. Many of the mourners were similarly attired. Public Health Service, where she had been a lieutenant commander. In one portrait, Shalon wore a vibrant smile and the crisp uniform of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Sprays of callas and roses dotted the room like giant corsages, flanking photos from happier times: Shalon in a slinky maternity dress, sprawled across her couch with her puppy Shalon, sleepy-eyed and cradling the tiny head of her newborn daughter, Soleil. The afternoon light was gray but bright, flooding through tall, arched windows and pouring past white columns, illuminating the flag that covered her casket. On a melancholy Saturday this past February, Shalon Irving's "village" - the friends and family she had assembled to support her as a single mother - gathered at a funeral home in a prosperous black neighborhood in southwest Atlanta to say goodbye. Wanda is raising Soleil since Shalon died of complications due to hypertension a few weeks after giving birth. Wanda Irving holds her granddaughter, Soleil, in front of a portrait of Soleil's mother, Shalon, at her home in Sandy Springs, Ga.
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