Special Projects Reporter
Marina was a 2018 National Fellow. She joined the San Antonio Express-News as a special projects reporter in February 2019 after working previously for the Victoria Advocate, where she wrote about housing, Hurricane Harvey recovery and the challenges that vulnerable residents face in South Texas for the Victoria Advocate. Before moving to Texas, she reported on local and state government in Bend, Oregon and Honolulu, Hawai'i.
A reporter explains how she found women willing to speak out about substandard maternity care in south Texas by posting messages on Facebook.
A key group of Texas representatives considered a proposal Tuesday that would lengthen health insurance coverage for low-income mothers.
“There’s so many aspects of services that failed people that shouldn’t have,” said Marselles Coe of San Antonio, who depends on dialysis treatments.
Much of rural Texas is a maternity care desert with few doctors to deliver babies. In some other states, licensed midwives fill in to handle uncomplicated births. But roadblocks limit their practice here.
Shawn Thierry can’t recall the moment she gave birth, but she does remember how she almost died.
Whether a woman delivers by cesarean has less to do with her health than the hospital she goes to. Case in point: Doctors Hospital of Laredo, where rates of surgical intervention during childbirth are way above the norm. Experts say something isn’t right.
Two Texas hospitals performed episiotomies at rates four to six times the recommended level last year. But women giving birth should know: You have the final say.
Pregnant women afflicted with COVID-19 face potentially terrifying ordeals, especially when the pregnancy is already high-risk.
For families preparing to bring newborns into the world, the coronavirus has disrupted prenatal care and birthing plans, sometimes leading to canceled appointments and limited visitors in hospital delivery rooms.
'The only thing standing between us is this glass,' Alex Benavidez told his wife, Kayla, as they grappled with COVID-19 restrictions during the birth of their daughter. The pandemic has spurred striking precautions in delivery rooms across Texas.
