Did know you are HUNDREDS OF TIMES more likely to die of childbirth than skydiving in the United States? It sounds outlandish when initially heard, but it in America where reproductive rights are actively censored (from the way we speak about our bodies from the medical setting, social media) our voices are actively oppressed and our own autonomy to our bodies and chances of longevity of life and basic human autonomy are being actively oppressed.

Here is the mathematical breakdown for this statistic:

The U.S. maternal mortality rate is currently 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births.

The U.S. skydiving fatality rate is 0.39 deaths per 100,000 jumps (U.S. Parachute Association). We did a ratio and divided 17.9/0.39 to obtain a relative percentage of 46%, which means that for all women of any race in the Unites States you are almost 50% (1.5 times) more likely to pass away from giving birth than jumping off a plane.

Additionally, for one of the most common yet debilitating disorders affecting approximately 10% of women of reproductive age called, “Endometriosis”, it takes on average 10 YEARS for a woman to receive an initial diagnosis: the causes being persistent symptoms being passed off as just having anxiety or the perception of women being overdramatic.

In the mental health aspect for women, according to the Autism Society

According to the CDC’s Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States 2023 , black women are 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes compared to their white counterparts. Despite a recent decline, these levels remain strikingly high in the U.S. compared to other high income countries and pre-pandemic rates.

Not only this, but this further exposes our country’s deeper inequities such as the lack of value towards our black mothers lives, barriers to healthcare accessibility, research funding, and state policies. Women Interrupted , created by Hannah Hui, initially started as a personal blog to share her personal story of overcoming complex PTSD, living with ADHD, depression, anxiety, and undiagnosed autism growing up in a household where physical and verbal abuse has been present and the process of going from a top student to struggling with ADHD and CPSTD during a crucial period without the proper tools or awareness: to advocating your way towards diagnosis and the messy journey of rebuilding your academic stamina and neuroplasticity through an ASD/ADHD friendly routine and therapy, while pursuing medical school as a recently found passion. As someone who was diagnosed 20 years later with complex PTSD, depression, ADHD, anxiety, I was told by my psychiatrist at the time I was diagnosed “You’re doing well enough in school and your mother, on the written portion states she didn’t think you had any symptoms of ADHD so while you ranked highest in all ADHD categories we cannot give you an ADHD diagnosis by law”. If you have been in this situation where it has taken multiple follow ups in order to receive a formal diagnosis then your anger, pain, and frustration is seen and heard. Anyways, I got to see the personal side of how difficult it is to receive a mental health diagnosis, especially in an East Asian household where mental health was heavily stigmatized and was laughed off as a myth. Across research and as a general note, I think it is crucial we show compassion to our communities where mental health was not a real “thing” to our parents or grandparents, but I would like to share that this stigma and failure to acknowledge the truth that is psychology and science, of mental health leads to increased suicide and worsening mental health for our indigenous American/Alaskan Native, black, and brown communities. While I do not believe all East Asian households hold the same views towards mental health as I have friends whose East Asian parents had totally different attitudes towards it, I personally grew up in a house where mental health was a stigma and seen as a weakeness and weaponized against you, and performance and grades were pretty gold medals in which if your persona did not match your exterior, you were met with constant hypercriticism, disappointment, and physical or verbal abuse . how hormonal imbalances in the brain such as those without the adequate number of dopamine receptors (which are patients with ADHD), can severely negatively impact your ability to function when left untreated or lacking the awareness of what is going on within your brain and body. For those with ADHD, you have an increased chance of Alzheimers’, chronic fatigue, a predisposition towards chronic sleep disorders (insomnia, sleep apnea), substance abuse disorders and more. Individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder are at an increased risk of thyroid or metabolic disorders, which may lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and stroke, and increased risk of anxiety disorder and suicide. *For an in-depth breakdown of the chemical messenger critical to all human’s day to day motivation and concentration to perform daily tasks I highly recommend watching Stanford Neurobiologist, Andrew Huberman’s Podcast on “Dopamine Mindset & Drive”.* In simple terms, dopamine is a chemical signal that is crucial for motivation, energy, and drive. When the human body lacks a certain hormone or key biological molecule, the body wants to compensate and attain a normal physiological balance which we refer to in medical terms as “homeostasis”. Women Interrupted is not just a platform for sharing your voice, but our team aims to spotlight the pressing issues of how mental illness, chronic illness, pain all affect women’s bodies in a much more different way than men, and that of maternal mortality amongst women of color, mental health in communities of color, and health disparities primarily affecting women. Not only do we want to address the contributing factors to these issues, but also highlight survival and prevention. Each and every one of us, women and men, play a role in protecting the lives of women. When we protect women, we uplift one another and reinforce our value. Women have the power to make authentic and diplomatic leaders in the workplace, we uplift children who power a creative and innovative future, members of communities, and economies flourish.

Our main objective is to educate our audience, provide a space for women to share their stories, as well as empower women across the world to take autonomy over their bodies. We believe knowing about your temple and the possible risk factors that arise due to genetics, demographics, and socioeconomic statuses is a human right. Our mission is rooted in the belief that healthcare must be compassionate, conscious, and accessible. We aim to cultivate a new generation of healthcare providers, individuals who are not only clinically skilled but emotionally attuned to the lived realities of those they serve. Equally, we seek to empower women, old and young, with the knowledge they need to advocate for themselves and others, because knowing how to be proactive in your physical and mental health is a fundamental right.

In this space, we value the voices of those often interrupted, often unheard. We highlight personal journeys through illness, recovery, and the too-often difficult path to accessing care. We examine encounters with healthcare workers, both the redemptive and the retraumatizing, and unravel the systems that leave many fighting not just disease, but injustice.

  We seek to provide resources and education, as these are the keys towards breaking the cycle of poverty and access to healthcare. Women Interrupted seeks to provide mental health resources for underserved communities and aims to promote new findings in research. We aim to address ways healthcare professionals can counteract implicit bias and how this affects the quality of their patients’ lives, and to reduce distrust in the medical system. 

Our work is intersectional. We explore how poverty, race, gender, and geography intertwine to shape health outcomes, acknowledging the stark realities faced by women of color, those from low-income white communities, and men of color alike. We are not afraid to ask hard questions about how history, systemic neglect, and medical bias continue to echo in exam rooms and emergency wards today.

Healthcare is something that we at Women Interrupted are passionate about, and we hope to share and inspire our audience to become more involved in their healthcare as well as to share with their friends and family. We want it to be noted that we are not healthcare professionals, but we do put in the work and time to seek out academic, science-based, research-based, and unbiased resources to support the information we share on our platforms. We also work and participate in healthcare environments with licensed healthcare professionals. Our organization hopes to encourage women and allies of women’s healthcare to share the resources and informational segments across all our platforms.

Sources:

1. https://autismsociety.org/autism-women-mental-health-time-to-learn-more/
2. https://www.femtechworld.co.uk/news/lifesaving-womens-health-content-censored-and-blocked-on-social-media/
3. https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/understanding-undiagnosed-autism-adult-females
4. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7340a1.htm
5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeN6eGO6FVQ Andrew Huberman’s Podcast Episode “Dopamine Mindset & Drive”
6. https://open.maricopa.edu/culturepsychology/chapter/stereotypes-prejudice-and-discrimination/
7. https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/disparities/index.html