A Lifeline for Moms: Chapter 3 – The Pregnant Pause

FORT WORTH – The support mothers receive before and after childbirth is crucial in reducing high maternal morbidity and mortality rates in North Texas.   

Tarrant County has the second highest maternal mortality rate among Black women in Texas with 48.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to data provided by the Tarrant County Maternal and Infant Health Coalition. 

Despite having a robust family with 13 children, Anthony Wallace and Onia Mayberry-Wallace, of Fort Worth, know the risks involved with each of Onia’s pregnancies because of her kidney failure diagnosis.  

“I am a mom with a chronic illness; I’ve had my diagnosis since I was 15,” Mayberry-Wallace said. “From my second pregnancy on out, I had the realization that I’m a high-risk pregnancy moving forward.” 

All their children have been born in Tarrant or Dallas counties. Their 13th child, Fancy-Jolene, and Mayberry-Wallace defied the odds of survival when physicians found out Mayberry-Wallace needed emergency kidney removal surgery 21 weeks into her pregnancy. Mayberry-Wallace had to have an emergency cesarean section, more commonly known as a C-section, to deliver her daughter along with the kidney surgery.  

C-sections put women at a higher risk of a severe obstetric complication (SOC), which could be fatal for moms and their babies. 

On the operating table, Onia had a conversation with her doctor: “There will not be a baby at the end of this; we just need to get to your organs at this point,” Mayberry-Wallace recalled.  

In Texas, Black women experience Severe Maternal Morbidity (SMM) twice as often as white women and 78% of that gap is due to preexisting health conditions, according to a 2024 study by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women’s Health.  

The North Texas Maternal Health Accelerator (MHA) comprised of city government, universities, health systems, and community organizations in Tarrant and Dallas counties have come together to address maternal morbidity through medical research and making parenting resources available free of cost for all moms in North Texas.  The Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at Texas Christian University and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center have joined forces to lead the MHA program. 

“No other major city across the U.S. is coming together with the strategic investments and innovations to invest in maternal health and the overall well-being of moms and their babies,” said Sadie Funk, Co-founder and National Director of The Best Place For Kids®. 

While pregnant with Fancy-Jolene, Mayberry-Wallace used Parent Pass™, a mobile application, to help her navigate her high-risk pregnancy.  

“I fell in love with the app immediately,” Mayberry-Wallace said. “The app was like having a village in your phone.” 

Mayberry-Wallace was one of  80 moms in Tarrant County who gave input on the development of Parent Pass™, which was created by The Miles Foundation and Best Place For Kids with grant funding support from the North Texas Community Foundation. The app is a central access point for mothers in Tarrant and Dallas counties, and provides a seamless way to connect to more than 600 local resources, according to Sara Redington, Chief Philanthropy Officer for The Miles Foundation.  

“What we heard from moms in Tarrant County is that they had no idea of even half of the resources that were available to them from prenatal to one year postnatal,” Redington said. “This is a technology that was built by local families and for local families and that’s really a first-of-its kind technology.” 

Fancy-Jolene was born at 21 weeks, and miraculously, was able to breathe on her own. Despite a lengthy stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) during her first months of life, the infant  thrived and remains healthy.  

“I have wonderful doctors and we’ve developed a wonderful relationship; they don’t beat around the bush – they give it to me straight so I know what to prepare for,” Mayberry-Wallace said. 

Thanks to Parent Pass™, Mayberry-Wallace has a team of healthcare professionals helping her navigate Fancy-Jolene’s premature birth. She said the app helped “guide me through that process.”