According to the CDC, in 2020, 861 women died in the US as a result of maternal causes. That’s up from 754 women who perished during or shortly after giving birth the year before, and an increase compared to the 658 women who lost their lives due to pregnancy and birth complications a year earlier. 

In fact, the rate of maternal mortality in the United States has increased in the past three decades. During a time when most countries throughout the world have improved outcomes for people giving birth, having a baby in this country has become more dangerous and deadly. And Bearing the brunt of these brutal statistics is Black women. 

For nearly a decade researchers and reproductive justice advocates have worked to marshal resources to address this crisis. But statistics, graphs, and “rates per one hundred thousand” can make it difficult to capture the human reality of maternal death. 

A new documentary film out on Hulu is changing that. 

In Aftershock, Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiseltfollow what happens to the families of Amber Rose Isaac and Shamony Gibson, after each woman dies from medical negligence after giving birth.