will specialized nurses have been one of the key elements in the Murphy administration's plan to reduce maternal mortality rates but a recent report from the Journal of the American Medical Association finds pregnancy-related deaths for black women in New Jersey have been one of the worst in the country for the last two decades that's all despite the state's high ranking for income levels education and Health Care a senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan reports many are waiting to see when all of the recent efforts here will make real change my son would not be here I would not be alive today had I not been my own Advocate vuan Foster recalls multiple trips to the ER not long after delivering her baby boy King Foster's blood pressure had soared dangerously high after repeatedly being sent home the public health worker stood her ground and fought for her life I kept showing up saying something is not right with me I just had a baby I need you to check me out and I kept showing up until literally the last time I showed up I knew I was dying and I literally said to the nurse like this is the type of work that I do I know that black women and black babies are dying at alarming rate in New Jersey because of pregnancy complications like I need you to take me seriously they did Foster survived postpartum preeclampsia she delivered king after suffering two devastating miscarriages she believes were preventable and she's not surprised by a new Jama study showing the rate of black women dying while pregnant during delivery or a year after giving birth doubled from the late 90s to 2010 in New Jersey black maternal mortality rates in Jersey went from 54.5 for a hundred thousand births to a hundred and ten per 100 000 births over the past two decades I believe that not being listened to is a huge part of the problem I feel like nobody knows our bodies better than us I do think we have a bit of a broken Health Care system that will require us to you know fix policies and also increase the amount of access that patients have to Providers and to their resources Dr Antonio Oladipo says the issue is complicated the study pointed out black women are more likely to experience hypertension and Hemorrhage and a Health Care System where Equity remains a challenge investigators found again black maternal mortality rates led by a large margin with 110 per 100 000 births compared to other groups Native American white Hispanic and Asian the article points to this the fact is that the trend across the entire nation has increased right we are the only country that we continue to have worse outcomes and we still put a lot of money towards our care some experts believe medical centers should revise protocols for treatment Jersey's Department of Health recently awarded three and a half million dollars in Grants to improve maternal care across the state by funding long-term postpartum care year breastfeeding and family education to help fill in the gaps in health care which is at the foundation of all this is listening the more people around to listen the more we can understand and then be able to fill in those gaps I really really believe that so I'm teaching women basically how to do things for yourself while we're working on changing the system Foster founded a Blog called life after two losses where she advises black women that they need to advocate for themselves and push their providers to listen and beware stereotypes Foster's son King is now a thriving two-year-old he is my whole world my whole world and as I say that I I feel like the tears welting up because I fought so hard right Advocates say there's no quick and easy fix that it's going to take a significant investment over perhaps a decade working to achieve Health Care equity in Newark I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight news [Music]