Help us investigate why Texas moms are dying at alarming rates

Why are so many Texas women dying or nearly dying after childbirth?

It’s a question Texas Tribune journalists have been asking since a state task force released a report last summer showing that between 2011 and 2012, 189 Texas mothers had died less than a year after their pregnancies ended. Most of those deaths were attributed to heart disease, drug overdoses or high blood pressure.

While researchers, Texas legislators and advocacy groups are agonizing over what to do, The Texas Tribune is partnering with ProPublica and NPR to explore the systemic reasons behind Texas’ rising maternal mortality rate. We need your help.

Texas is a sprawling, diverse state. Where a woman lives determines how many ob-gyns are available, how quickly she can get an appointment for prenatal care, how many providers take Medicaid, whether mental health services are available to her, and which hospitals are equipped to handle pregnancy and postpartum emergencies. To understand what’s really happening, we need to hear from people who live in every corner of the state.

We’re also eager to reach more black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American women and families touched by this issue. Black women in Texas are twice as likely to die after a pregnancy-related hospital stay than any other group of women. We need to understand why.

If you are a Texas woman who had severe pregnancy complications, or if you know a Texas woman who died after giving birth, please complete the form below or email us at maternal@propublica.org. Your response to this post will help inform the public and policymakers, and ideally improve maternal health outcomes in Texas.