Midwife friends and I wish to join OB/GYN providers all over the country in mourning the death of Dr. Janell Green-Smith, certified nurse midwife from South Carolina. Dr. Green Smith died with preeclampsia on Jan. 26, just days after the birth of her first child. She was 31 years old.

A statement from the American College of Nurse-Midwives reads: “Dr. Smith was a respected midwife, scholar, and advocate whose life and work reflected a deep commitment to respectful, evidence-based, and equitable care.  That a Black midwife and maternal health expert died after giving birth in the United States is both heartbreaking and unacceptable. Her death underscores the persistent and well-documented reality that Black women — regardless of education, income, or professional expertise — face disproportionate risks during pregnancy and childbirth due to systemic racism and failures in care.”

We acknowledge that according to the Centers for Disease Control in 2023, hundreds of women die during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum year. Black women are three times more likely than white women to die from a cause related to pregnancy. Of all maternal deaths, 80 percent are preventable. This was the situation Janell Green-Smith wanted to address when she became a nurse-midwife: “I wanted to be part of the solution” she said in an Instagram post.

To honor Dr. Green-Smith’s life and work, we have to acknowledge that the current huge reductions in funding for health care will again disproportionately affect the most vulnerable in our communities. Lack of access to care, and systemic failures to provide adequate care when it’s needed, will lead to the illness and deaths of childbearing women and their babies throughout our society.

In memory of Janell Green-Smith, midwife, we must each do whatever we can to insist on a health care system which is well supported, effective, respectful and available to all of us. If you want to know more about Janell Green-Smith’s life, you can go to: https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/10/us/janell-green-smith-midwife-death-cec

And you can tell your government representatives at every opportunity that we only vote for candidates who champion the much stronger health care system we all need and deserve.

Liza Ramlow, CNM, is a a midwife who lives in Gill and works in Greenfield.