In 2023, 50.3 Black women died of maternal causes for every 100,000 live births in the United States. For white women the figure was 14.5, according to the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. That is about 3.5 times higher, and the national rate for all women was 18.6.
On Nov. 28, Tina Knowles and Kelly Rowland will go back to Houston’s Third Ward to try to put money against that gap. The two will captain the inaugural Third Ward Mile, a race and community walk that starts at 8 a.m. at Emancipation Park. It is organized by birthFUND, the maternal health nonprofit founded by Elaine Welteroth.
All race donations go to birthFUND’s community work, which includes support for community midwives and what the group calls culturally responsive maternity care. Participants as young as 6 can take part, and a finish-line celebration at the park will have music, food and local businesses.
The Third Ward is the historically Black neighborhood where Knowles raised Beyoncé and Solange. “Third Ward helped me raise my girls,” she said. “Coming home to support the health of mothers and babies in this community is about watering the roots that made us who we are.”
Rowland, who came up in Houston alongside Beyoncé, framed it around the mothers themselves. “Every mother deserves to feel safe, supported, and seen when she brings life into the world,” she said.
Welteroth called the situation “a preventable crisis.” Her organization’s answer is to widen access to midwives who work inside the communities they serve, rather than leaving Black patients to find their way into a system that has not always listened to them.
The CDC numbers show why the model is getting attention. Between 2022 and 2023, maternal mortality fell by a statistically significant margin for white and Hispanic women. The rate for Black women rose, though the CDC said the increase was not statistically significant. The 2023 rate for Hispanic women was 12.4 and for Asian women 10.7.
The Third Ward Mile is a fundraiser, not a policy change, and the money it raises will be small against the size of the problem. What it adds is a name and a place: a neighborhood with a long Black history, and two women from it asking Houston to show up on a Saturday morning.
Registration and donations run through birthFUND. The race is Nov. 28.
Have your say