Tonya Lewis Lee And Paula Eiselt Humanize The Black Maternal Health Crisis In 'Aftershock'
maternal health rates as they pertain to Black women. In their heartbreakingly poignant new documentary, Aftershock, directors Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiselt probe all of the ways that America’s health system has betrayed and devastated Black women and the Black community across time. Told through the families of Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Issac, two young women who died due to childbirth complications, Aftershock explores some damning statistics in our healthcare system, centers on the families left to pick up the pieces, and demands a call to action. “I started working with the US Department of Health and Human Services on an infant mortality awareness-raising campaign that focused on the disparity in equity. Those numbers are the same,” Lee tells ESSENCE.