You're listening to the inquiry on the BBC World Service with me

Helena Merriman. Each week we bring you four expert witnesses

answering one pressing question from the news.

One morning in May, Tonda went into labour.

She just got married.

She was living in Milwaukee in the US, and she was excited at the

thought of bringing a child into the world. She went to hospital, but soon

realized something was wrong. Her baby was distressed and then she started to go downhill too.

They struggled on and at 2.15 in the afternoon her baby was born. It was a boy.

But by then she was in a bad way. I thought I was losing my life, she told me.

The next morning she improved, but her son didn't. At 715, he died. She'd only got to hold him for a few minutes.

That moment changed me forever, she says.

She didn't know it then, but her son had just become part of a devastating statistic. Twice the number of black babies die in the US in their first year of life than white babies.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to call attention to a serious health crisis in America.

A few weeks ago, Congressman Hank Johnson made a speech in the US Congress, drawing attention to the appalling odds facing

not only black babies, but their mothers too.

In fact, the United States is the only industrialized nation where the number of pregnancy related

deaths is on the rise. This is particularly true for black women who are nearly

four times more likely to die from pregnancy complications

than white women.

Additionally, black infants are now more than twice as likely to die as white infants, a disparity which is larger

now than it was in 1850.

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