JACKSON, MISS. — When Lauren Jones was pregnant with her first child, doctors overlooked a leak in her amniotic sac because her description of the symptoms didn’t strike them as cause for alarm.
The symptoms didn’t improve. So when Jones went back a second time, she took no chances — she lied and told them she was spotting. The doctors quickly determined she needed an emergency cesarean section.
Jones is no anomaly in her home state of Mississippi, where 38.5 percent of pregnancies result in C-sections. But she is also one of the lucky ones. Mississippi has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country, a rate made worse by the pandemic. Black women like Jones in the state died at a rate four times higher than white women. Mississippi also has the worst infant mortality rate, with more than eight babies dying for every 1,000 births.
