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Bozoma Saint John shared an emotional video clip that chronicled her losses and wins in motherhood.
The sentimental visuals ran against Mariah Carey’s powerful vocals on the song “Hero.” The bad ass boss woman tied her journey to being a strong mom and a heroine, respectively.
“Strong mamas are heroes. And heroes are built through love, loss and survival.” Saint John captioned the tearjerking Instagram post.
The video begins with Saint John in a gym working on her well-toned physique then quickly shifts to a Clearblue pregnancy test that reads positive. Images of a happily pregnant St. John are displayed along with a sonogram of a fetus and a picture of the former Netflix executive in a hospital bed visibly swollen. This photo was captioned, “…and then I got sick with preeclampsia which made my blood pressure life-threatening.” What followed was devastating: an obituary for Eve Afiba Saint John that read “Ascended to Heaven July 11, 2008.” Baby Eve was being held by her parents and did not survive childbirth.
Due to alarming racial disparity in maternal health, Black infants are dying at alarming rates. According to the National Vital Statistics Reports, Black birthers face the highest infant mortality rates across race and ethnicity at “10.97 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.” And while low income and poverty seemingly play a role in these outcomes, wealthier Black womens are impacted as well. The New York Times reported that “437 babies born to the richest Black mothers die” and “653 babies born to the poorest Black mothers die” per 100,000 California births.
Although Saint John has found herself among this demographic, the C-suite executive went on to have a healthy pregnancy that resulted in the birth of her daughter Lael, who is now 14-years old. Bozoma shared the post ahead of Mother’s Day to remind her followers of the resilience of Black mothers and let them know that heroes are “built” not “born.”
To learn more about Saint John’s journey pick up her recently published memoir, The Urgent Life: My Story of Love, Loss, and Survival, at Black bookstore near you.
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