‘I’m not surprised’: Why maternal deaths, mistreatment, and policy collisions keep hitting Georgia women

ATLANTA — The numbers are alarming, but for Dr. Eboni January, they are not shocking.

Georgia continues to rank among the worst states in the nation for maternal and infant health outcomes. According to the 2025 March of Dimes report card, the state ranks 36th in maternal deaths from pregnancy or childbirth complications out of 48 states, and earns an “F” grade on overall maternal and infant health.

As lawmakers prepare to return to the Capitol for the upcoming legislative session, maternal health advocates say the conversation must expand beyond statistics to address the real-world consequences of policy failures, oversight failures, and restrictive care laws.

During a recent 11Alive interview, board-certified OB-GYN Dr. Eboni January described a healthcare system in which too many women feel dismissed long before labor begins.

“One of the things that I commonly see is just people feeling that patients don’t know anything,” Dr. January said. “So they feel as though they can just tell them whatever… and therefore not have an informed conversation with this particular patient.”

That breakdown, she said, often leaves patients afraid to speak up, even when something feels wrong.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in five women reports mistreatment during maternity care. Nearly half say they hold back from asking essential questions.

“Patients feel as though they’re being rushed through their visits,” Dr. January said. “They feel as though they don’t have a say.”

Some of those concerns were caught on camera.  In Indiana, a woman was discharged from a hospital despite reporting pain, only to give birth in her car minutes later. In Texas, a viral video from a Dallas-area hospital shows a woman in active labor repeatedly asking for help. In contrast, a hospital employee continued questioning her instead of treating her. Here in Georgia, Adriana Smith was sent home after reporting severe migraines; when she was rushed back to the hospital weeks later, scans revealed blood clots. She was soon declared brain dead and kept on life support until doctors could deliver her baby. In each case, families say the women were mistreated.

Dr. January said the mistreatment is a pattern that she has witnessed across the country.

“You lack empathy, you lack the ability to deliver culturally competent care,” January said. “You’re just… checking the box.”

In Georgia, the deaths of Adriana Smith,  Amber Thurman, and Candi Miller have become part of a broader conversation about how abortion care laws intersect with maternal health.

Georgia’s abortion restrictions impacted both women in ways that delayed or altered the care they received, raising urgent questions about whether fear of violating state law or barriers to timely treatment contributed to the outcomes. 

When asked why Georgia’s maternal mortality rate remains so high, Dr. January pointed to systemic gaps rather than individual mistakes.

“It has a lot to do with bias… racism as well,” she said, “but preventable causes of death that we need to make sure that we’re standardizing care.”

She pointed to California, where she says statewide attention to safety and enforcement has helped drive maternal death rates down.

“They are implementing toolkits, bundles so that we can standardize care,” January said. “But when we implement those things, we truly have to implement those. And they’re not necessarily being implemented. There are no checks and balances.”

Dr. January said responsibility ultimately falls on hospital leadership and policymakers.

“The leaders, the hospital leaders, have to make sure that things are not going like this,” she said. “We need to get out of the boardrooms and truly meet people where they are….It has to be continual. It has to be evaluated,” she continued. “There have to be checks and balances.”

As a word of advice for soon-to-be mothers, Dr. January said patients need to educate themselves so they can advocate from a place of knowledge.

Dr. January is a board-certified OBGYN and the author of Empower Motherhood: Essential Guide to Thrive During Pregnancy and Beyond, which aims to help women better understand their bodies, risks, and rights.