After her own complicated delivery, lawmaker aims to address Texas’s alarming maternal death rate
Texas state representative Shawn Thierry has introduced legislation to address black women's disproportionate risk of death during childbirth.
Texas attorney Shawn Thierry knew that hers was a high-risk pregnancy, as she was giving birth to her first child at age 42. But she also knew that her health insurance paid for more than adequate prenatal care, as well as a modern, well-equipped delivery room in a hospital with a good reputation.
But then, she said, she almost died.
“When I got the epidural, I started to feel the lower half of my body in excruciating pain,” Thierry recalled. “The nurses said, ‘You shouldn’t feel anything.’ But then the
