July 2, 2025 • 11 mins
Nichole Berryman is one of hundreds of surviving Black mothers now raising their daughters’ children after a maternal health loss. Her daughter, Tiara, died while in the hospital under the care of doctors. Medical professionals say Tiara’s death is not an isolated incident. While not every maternal death occurs in a hospital, many do.
Suggested solutions include training medical professionals to better recognize how health conditions present in African American women compared to other racial groups, and ensuring an advocate—such as a birthing or postpartum doula—is present during a mother’s hospital stay to help ensure proper care is given.
Suggested solutions include training medical professionals to better recognize how health conditions present in African American women compared to other racial groups, and ensuring an advocate—such as a birthing or postpartum doula—is present during a mother’s hospital stay to help ensure proper care is given.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we've been reporting in Bion's public awareness campaigns, Saving
Black Moms a Maternal health Crisis. Hundreds of Black women
die each year during periods of maternity that includes during
their pregnancy and delivery of their child, or within a
year after giving birth. Many maternal health professionals and advocates
say the situation has reached a crisis level. In this report,
(00:23):
Bin anchor Andrea Coleman shares one family's journey that health
professionals say is happening way too often to Black families
across the country.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Mike, Some of the latest statistics show the maternal mortality
rate between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three decreased
among white, Asian and Latino women, but increased slightly for
Black women. That increase put Black women dying at a
rate of fifty point nine percent for every one hundred
thousand live birds. That is at least three times higher
than white women, whose maternal mortality rate is right at
(00:55):
fourteen percent for every one hundred thousand live birds. The
maternal more dality rates for Latino and Asian women are
even lower. The increased rate of Black women dying during
this most precious moment in life is impacting the lives
of many Black families, one of those being Nicole Berymns.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Our daughter had a baby November eighteen. She stated to
her nurse that she was having chest pains on November nineteen.
The nurse told her that that was normal after having
a baby.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Nicole recently shared the story of her daughter, Tierra with US.
Tierra died last November, just days after delivering a healthy
baby boy. Post delivery, Tierra developed severe chest pains. After
being discharged, the pains continued, so she returned to the
hospital seeking the help of doctors. Hours after being admitted
a second time, TIERA was placing in intensive care, but
(01:49):
doctors struggled to find the cause of her pain. Her mother, Nicole,
picks up the story from here. Please note it maybe
disturbing to hear.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
They told me pneumonia, they told me stress, they told
me maybe spasms. There was never a diagnosis. It was
a maybe, and we communicated and nothing happened. They took her,
they did the test for her heart. They came back
and told me that it was stressed. So I'm like,
(02:17):
you're not gonna do an echo cardreogram or chest X
ray to find out if that's what it is, and
why would you just say it's stress. Why wouldn't you
rule out with the worst it could be and then
come back and say later that it was stress because
stresser just wasn't sitting well with me. Tierra complained about
her head hurting from I'm sure the nitro glycerin that
(02:41):
they were giving her that was a side effect. They said.
I said, well, did you inform them that your head
is hurting? They said, it's a side effect. And then
she said, well, what's the point of telling them anything
because they're not going to do anything. And I'm like, okay,
well at this point, do you want to go somewhere else,
because it's whatever you want to do. It was convenient
(03:01):
for me because I worked.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Down in the er.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I could come, I could talk, I could be proactive
with what's going on with your care. But I can't
speak for you because you have a voice. So she
just said, I want to get better. I want to
go home to my baby. That's all she was waiting
on was him. So the next day the nurse told
her if she left the hospital, it was gonna only
(03:24):
delay the care, so they were gonna have to start
all over so she said, I just want to go
home to my kids. She just forget it. I'll just
stay because I don't want to start over. This hurts.
I want to get better. So we let her stay.
(03:45):
Then that was the twenty seventh. Is how I came
into work. I did everything that I need to do,
and then I said, I'm gonna go check on her.
So it was like seven maybe seven forty a m.
When I went to check on her. When I got
in the room, Tyr was sitting like in the bed,
(04:09):
rocking back and forth, and I said, Babe, what's wrong?
She said, my chest hurt. I said, well, did you
put the call light on? She said I did, so
I went out and looked to see if the light
on the outside of the door was beeping, because that's
what it does, and somebody has to physically come in
the room and cut off the call bill. So she said,
(04:31):
if somebody picked up the phone and said someone would
be there shortly, surely it is not an option when
your chest hurts.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Nicole said. She then went to the nurses station to
seek help.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I said, can I speak to the charge nurse. The
charge nurse walked me to the room and by that time,
her nurse was coming with medicine in her hand. Tyr
was like, please, please, you know, Mama, my chest hurt.
She said, well I have you I have your morphine here.
If you want that I can get She said, yes,
(05:04):
give it to me. I said, well wait, hold on, ma'am,
before you give her anything else, tell me why you're
treating the pain but not the problem. You're giving her morphine,
but what is the reason that you're giving her morphine?
Does she know why she's taking morphine? She said, well,
she has naitral glycerin and appealed that dissolved under her tongue.
(05:24):
Tiar said, that don't work. So as I'm talking to
the charger, she ensured me that Tiara had the best
two doctors. Her vitals looked great. As a matter of fact,
she was getting better. I said, are you sure, because
from what I'm looking at, it don't look like it.
So she said, well, I'm gonna go check her charts.
Tierra is begging for medicine. At this point. The nurse
(05:45):
injected her through ivy with the morphine, and Tiarra instantly
was like, it's hot. It's hot, Mama, I can't breathe.
Help me, Mama, please help me, and I'm like, what
am I supposed to do? The nurse went out the
room and said, well, I have taler' all three. If
(06:06):
this is not working, I said, you're gonna go get
some more medicine. So the charge nurse had walked out
to go and contact the doctors. The nurse went out
to get talleran' all three. Tierra, I was cleaned off
her table because it was just wet with water. So
(06:27):
I was clean off her table for breakfast. And I
had just hung up with a cafeteria and put in
her order, and no, soon as I hung up the phone,
she started gagging, and so I said, what you gotta
throw up? And her eyes rolled to the back of
(06:47):
her head. And it wasn't even three minutes. It was
not even three minutes, but for her for the pain
to go and notice for ten minutes that I was
up there. I don't know how long before I got
up there that she was in pain, but the time
(07:08):
that it took, the the time that it took them
to get to her is so unreal. And then I
literally watched them just CPR eighty one minutes, so CPR
on my baby and then they said, we're gonna see
if we can transfer her out. I said, after eighty
one minutes you played in my face eighty one minutes
(07:32):
of CPR, Now you want to transfer her. Only for
them to come back and say we can't transfer her
without a proper diagnosis. I said, wow, get out of
my face.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Several months had passed when we spoke with Nicole Still
she was looking for greater insight into what caused her
daughter's death.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
There was never a diagnosis. There was never they When
I ended up getting the autopsicy report, which was March third,
then she passed away in November. It said that she
had a heart attack. Well I know that, but why
did she have a heart attack? You injected the morphine
(08:15):
too fast, You delayed care. She shouldn't have never been
released or discharged from the hospital when she said her
chest hurt the day after she had the baby. So
I feel like this could have been prevented. I feel
like if they were proactive, if they would have came
in with EKG machines and X rays to find out
what the problem was instead of guessing everything was a guess. Well,
(08:39):
I'm not sure, I said, could it be a heart murmur, well, no,
that wouldn't be it. Well, could it be her breast
and gorge? Well no, that's not it. Well we would
have to call L and D and find out this.
And I'm like, this is I see you. You guys
are the top doctors here. Why are you having to
call and get second opinions on you know your.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Job medical professional. Tierra's death is not an isolated incident.
While not every maternal death takes place while a mother
is in the hospital, far too many of them do.
Suggested solutions to the problem range from requiring more detailed
training of medical professionals on how different health elements and
conditions present in African American women compared to women from
(09:19):
other racial groups, to having an advocate like a birthing
or postpartum doula present during a mother's hospital stay to
ensure proper care is given. As for Nicole, she is
now raising Tierra's three children, all of whom are under
the age of ten.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I'm doing what the bes I can. I know she's
with us. I really haven't had time to break down
or agree because I have to stay strolls for the kids,
for her siblings who try to commit suicide, the day
(09:56):
after the.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Message to your grandchildren, what are you going to tell
them about their She's an angel and she's with them
everywhere they go, everywhere they go.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Her seven year old Saturday, save me a picture of
her redbird on the roof of the house, and she said,
is this my mom? I said it is. She's making
sure you Okay, that's same. We A bird came the
day she passed and just stared in our window for
a long time. So it's gonna be it's gonna be
(10:26):
a tough road. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We met Nicole through Bonna Hickman, founder of Viola's House
in Dallas, Texas. Donna reached out to Nicole after learning
of her daughter's death to offer assistance in the care
of her grandchildren. As our campaign continues, we will hear
more of how organizations like Viola's House are providing critical
care and guidance to Black mothers and mothers to be.
They are part of a growing network of community based
(10:51):
organizations determined to bridge the maternal health gap that is
impacting Black families and communities in a most painful way.
I'm Andrea Coleman with the Saving Black Moms Special Report.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Thanks Andrea. We will continue to spotlight this issue throughout
the summer. Our stories will include a first hand account
of mother's surviving to maternal health challenges, as well as
a look at some maternal health advocates who are helping
provide solutions to the problem. You can learn more about
bi's Saving Black Moms public awareness campaign at binnews dot
(11:24):
com
As we've been reporting in Bion's public awareness campaigns, Saving
Black Moms a Maternal health Crisis. Hundreds of Black women
die each year during periods of maternity that includes during
their pregnancy and delivery of their child, or within a
year after giving birth. Many maternal health professionals and advocates
say the situation has reached a crisis level. In this report,
(00:23):
Bin anchor Andrea Coleman shares one family's journey that health
professionals say is happening way too often to Black families
across the country.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Mike, Some of the latest statistics show the maternal mortality
rate between twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three decreased
among white, Asian and Latino women, but increased slightly for
Black women. That increase put Black women dying at a
rate of fifty point nine percent for every one hundred
thousand live birds. That is at least three times higher
than white women, whose maternal mortality rate is right at
(00:55):
fourteen percent for every one hundred thousand live birds. The
maternal more dality rates for Latino and Asian women are
even lower. The increased rate of Black women dying during
this most precious moment in life is impacting the lives
of many Black families, one of those being Nicole Berymns.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Our daughter had a baby November eighteen. She stated to
her nurse that she was having chest pains on November nineteen.
The nurse told her that that was normal after having
a baby.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Nicole recently shared the story of her daughter, Tierra with US.
Tierra died last November, just days after delivering a healthy
baby boy. Post delivery, Tierra developed severe chest pains. After
being discharged, the pains continued, so she returned to the
hospital seeking the help of doctors. Hours after being admitted
a second time, TIERA was placing in intensive care, but
(01:49):
doctors struggled to find the cause of her pain. Her mother, Nicole,
picks up the story from here. Please note it maybe
disturbing to hear.
Speaker 3 (01:57):
They told me pneumonia, they told me stress, they told
me maybe spasms. There was never a diagnosis. It was
a maybe, and we communicated and nothing happened. They took her,
they did the test for her heart. They came back
and told me that it was stressed. So I'm like,
(02:17):
you're not gonna do an echo cardreogram or chest X
ray to find out if that's what it is, and
why would you just say it's stress. Why wouldn't you
rule out with the worst it could be and then
come back and say later that it was stress because
stresser just wasn't sitting well with me. Tierra complained about
her head hurting from I'm sure the nitro glycerin that
(02:41):
they were giving her that was a side effect. They said.
I said, well, did you inform them that your head
is hurting? They said, it's a side effect. And then
she said, well, what's the point of telling them anything
because they're not going to do anything. And I'm like, okay,
well at this point, do you want to go somewhere else,
because it's whatever you want to do. It was convenient
(03:01):
for me because I worked.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Down in the er.
Speaker 3 (03:03):
I could come, I could talk, I could be proactive
with what's going on with your care. But I can't
speak for you because you have a voice. So she
just said, I want to get better. I want to
go home to my baby. That's all she was waiting
on was him. So the next day the nurse told
her if she left the hospital, it was gonna only
(03:24):
delay the care, so they were gonna have to start
all over so she said, I just want to go
home to my kids. She just forget it. I'll just
stay because I don't want to start over. This hurts.
I want to get better. So we let her stay.
(03:45):
Then that was the twenty seventh. Is how I came
into work. I did everything that I need to do,
and then I said, I'm gonna go check on her.
So it was like seven maybe seven forty a m.
When I went to check on her. When I got
in the room, Tyr was sitting like in the bed,
(04:09):
rocking back and forth, and I said, Babe, what's wrong?
She said, my chest hurt. I said, well, did you
put the call light on? She said I did, so
I went out and looked to see if the light
on the outside of the door was beeping, because that's
what it does, and somebody has to physically come in
the room and cut off the call bill. So she said,
(04:31):
if somebody picked up the phone and said someone would
be there shortly, surely it is not an option when
your chest hurts.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Nicole said. She then went to the nurses station to
seek help.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I said, can I speak to the charge nurse. The
charge nurse walked me to the room and by that time,
her nurse was coming with medicine in her hand. Tyr
was like, please, please, you know, Mama, my chest hurt.
She said, well I have you I have your morphine here.
If you want that I can get She said, yes,
(05:04):
give it to me. I said, well wait, hold on, ma'am,
before you give her anything else, tell me why you're
treating the pain but not the problem. You're giving her morphine,
but what is the reason that you're giving her morphine?
Does she know why she's taking morphine? She said, well,
she has naitral glycerin and appealed that dissolved under her tongue.
(05:24):
Tiar said, that don't work. So as I'm talking to
the charger, she ensured me that Tiara had the best
two doctors. Her vitals looked great. As a matter of fact,
she was getting better. I said, are you sure, because
from what I'm looking at, it don't look like it.
So she said, well, I'm gonna go check her charts.
Tierra is begging for medicine. At this point. The nurse
(05:45):
injected her through ivy with the morphine, and Tiarra instantly
was like, it's hot. It's hot, Mama, I can't breathe.
Help me, Mama, please help me, and I'm like, what
am I supposed to do? The nurse went out the
room and said, well, I have taler' all three. If
(06:06):
this is not working, I said, you're gonna go get
some more medicine. So the charge nurse had walked out
to go and contact the doctors. The nurse went out
to get talleran' all three. Tierra, I was cleaned off
her table because it was just wet with water. So
(06:27):
I was clean off her table for breakfast. And I
had just hung up with a cafeteria and put in
her order, and no, soon as I hung up the phone,
she started gagging, and so I said, what you gotta
throw up? And her eyes rolled to the back of
(06:47):
her head. And it wasn't even three minutes. It was
not even three minutes, but for her for the pain
to go and notice for ten minutes that I was
up there. I don't know how long before I got
up there that she was in pain, but the time
(07:08):
that it took, the the time that it took them
to get to her is so unreal. And then I
literally watched them just CPR eighty one minutes, so CPR
on my baby and then they said, we're gonna see
if we can transfer her out. I said, after eighty
one minutes you played in my face eighty one minutes
(07:32):
of CPR, Now you want to transfer her. Only for
them to come back and say we can't transfer her
without a proper diagnosis. I said, wow, get out of
my face.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Several months had passed when we spoke with Nicole Still
she was looking for greater insight into what caused her
daughter's death.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
There was never a diagnosis. There was never they When
I ended up getting the autopsicy report, which was March third,
then she passed away in November. It said that she
had a heart attack. Well I know that, but why
did she have a heart attack? You injected the morphine
(08:15):
too fast, You delayed care. She shouldn't have never been
released or discharged from the hospital when she said her
chest hurt the day after she had the baby. So
I feel like this could have been prevented. I feel
like if they were proactive, if they would have came
in with EKG machines and X rays to find out
what the problem was instead of guessing everything was a guess. Well,
(08:39):
I'm not sure, I said, could it be a heart murmur, well, no,
that wouldn't be it. Well, could it be her breast
and gorge? Well no, that's not it. Well we would
have to call L and D and find out this.
And I'm like, this is I see you. You guys
are the top doctors here. Why are you having to
call and get second opinions on you know your.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
Job medical professional. Tierra's death is not an isolated incident.
While not every maternal death takes place while a mother
is in the hospital, far too many of them do.
Suggested solutions to the problem range from requiring more detailed
training of medical professionals on how different health elements and
conditions present in African American women compared to women from
(09:19):
other racial groups, to having an advocate like a birthing
or postpartum doula present during a mother's hospital stay to
ensure proper care is given. As for Nicole, she is
now raising Tierra's three children, all of whom are under
the age of ten.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
I'm doing what the bes I can. I know she's
with us. I really haven't had time to break down
or agree because I have to stay strolls for the kids,
for her siblings who try to commit suicide, the day
(09:56):
after the.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Message to your grandchildren, what are you going to tell
them about their She's an angel and she's with them
everywhere they go, everywhere they go.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Her seven year old Saturday, save me a picture of
her redbird on the roof of the house, and she said,
is this my mom? I said it is. She's making
sure you Okay, that's same. We A bird came the
day she passed and just stared in our window for
a long time. So it's gonna be it's gonna be
(10:26):
a tough road. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We met Nicole through Bonna Hickman, founder of Viola's House
in Dallas, Texas. Donna reached out to Nicole after learning
of her daughter's death to offer assistance in the care
of her grandchildren. As our campaign continues, we will hear
more of how organizations like Viola's House are providing critical
care and guidance to Black mothers and mothers to be.
They are part of a growing network of community based
(10:51):
organizations determined to bridge the maternal health gap that is
impacting Black families and communities in a most painful way.
I'm Andrea Coleman with the Saving Black Moms Special Report.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Thanks Andrea. We will continue to spotlight this issue throughout
the summer. Our stories will include a first hand account
of mother's surviving to maternal health challenges, as well as
a look at some maternal health advocates who are helping
provide solutions to the problem. You can learn more about
bi's Saving Black Moms public awareness campaign at binnews dot
(11:24):
com
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