Tori Bowie’s Teammates Share Pregnancy Stories To Raise Awareness In Her Honor

Tori Bowie, the Olympic athlete who died in May due to complications from childbirth, is being honored by her fellow Team USA sprinters — who are sharing their own pregnancy stories to raise awareness about the maternal mortality crisis affecting Black women.

“THREE (3) of the FOUR (4) of us who ran on the SECOND fastest 4x100m relay of all time, the 2016 Olympic Champions have nearly died or died in childbirth,” Tianna Madison, who shares an 18-month-old with partner Charles Ryan, wrote on Instagram.

Madison noted that Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. That disparity is largely rooted in different levels of health care quality, chronic conditions and structural racism, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Bowie’s autopsy showed the 32-year-old was eight months pregnant and in the process of giving birth when she died. Madison — who referenced herself, Bowie and Allyson Felix in the quote above — experienced firsthand the dangers that Black pregnant women face.

“Even though I went into labor at 26 weeks we went to the hospital with my medical advance directive AND my will,” she wrote on Instagram. “Additionally I had a VERY tough conversation with [Ryan] about who to save if it came down to it.”

“I was NOT AT ALL confident that I’d be coming home,” she continued.

Women dying of maternal causes in the U.S. has skyrocketed by 60% in the last few years, from 754 in 2019 to 1,205 in 2021, according to the CDC. While the agency attributed much of these instances to COVID-19, it noted that the racial gap in fatalities was wider than before.

Madison, a gold-winning runner, explained that her husband “did not take no for an answer” from doctors her the hospital, and that he “saved” both her and their baby. Felix supported Madison in the comments and said the racial disparity is “heartbreaking.”

“We continue to face a maternity mortality crisis in this country,” Felix wrote. “Black women are at risk. It’s why I won’t stop doing this work. We can’t sit by and continue to watch our loved ones die when many of the complications are preventable. Standing with you, T.”

Bowie’s daughter, who weighed 1.8 pounds and measured 16 inches, did not survive.

Felix herself was diagnosed with preeclampsia two months before giving birth. The pregnancy complication can lead to high blood pressure and a more severe form called eclampsia, which can cause seizures or comas and was listed as a potential complication in Bowie’s autopsy.

“My sister just had an very unpleasant experience with a doctor who totally ignored her pain and ignored her,” wrote Michelle Carter, a Black Olympian shot-putter, in the comments of Madison’s post. “He never spoke to her or looked at her face.”

“Some people have the pleasure of being catered to and seen,” she continued.

Felix, whose daughter with fellow sprinter Kenneth Ferguson reportedly had to spend the first month of her life in a neonatal intensive care unit, has taken part in the CDC’s “Hear Her” campaign to educate pregnant Black women about these issues.

“I really want women just to be aware ― to know if they’re at risk, to have a plan in place, to not be intimidated in doctors’ offices, and to be heard,” Felix said in a 2021 video for the CDC. “To be persistent about anything that does not feel normal.”