Rayna Reid Rayford is aware that her maternal health experience was far from an anomaly.

Rayford, a lawyer and strategic communicator, had a challenging start to parenthood. Early on, when she met her now husband, they had conversations about children and agreed they wanted just one. When they embarked on that journey, it was hard for Rayford to conceive, and she experienced two consecutive miscarriages within a couple of months. The second miscarriage was so painful that she went to the emergency room.

“We started to meet with fertility doctors and I started to think, ‘Is something wrong with me?’ You really start to internalize a lot. And then it was at that juncture that we actually found out we were pregnant for the third time in the calendar year,” Rayford told AFROTECH™.

This was in December 2023. She is grateful to have “survived” pregnancy. She worked with a doula after the first trimester because it was important to her to have a comprehensive 360-degree support system, which also included her OBGYN.

When Rayford was 30 weeks pregnant, she went to the hospital and was told she was dehydrated by the doctors, then was sent away. She returned at 31 weeks, and it was through the advocacy of five of her family members who happened to be doctors that led to a bigger discovery.

“They were taking turns coming back and then questioning things that were happening. ‘Why was my blood sitting on the table untested? Why weren’t they running tests? Why weren’t they ordering things?’ And because of my family’s advocacy, I was able to get that MRI, and then that turned out I had acute necrotizing appendicitis,” Rayford said.

She believes if she had been sent home again, the chances of her and her daughter being alive would have been low. Despite checking off boxes such as having an OB/GYN who made her feel safe, a doula, and full awareness of Black maternal health, Rayford said she was still at the”mercy of whoever you were in front of.”

A week after discovering she had acute necrotizing appendicitis, she developed Ileus, a delay in her digestive system, leading her back to the hospital for another week. Two weeks after returning home, she gave birth ahead of schedule at the 36-week mark, and her doula was not available as a result.

It was through her own experience, reflecting on the realities of a former coworker who died in childbirth, and considering the women who do not have a waiting room of advocates and family doctors, that challenged Rayford to want to create a solution.

“I am here because I happened to have five doctors in the waiting room with me. But what about all of the other women who are pregnant, who might not have a waiting room full of medical advocates,” Rayford explained.

Pregnant And Black

Rayford launched Pregnant and Black, a mobile web platform that ensures mothers can receive culturally competent care, critical resources, and access to healthcare advocates who can be contacted via text, video, or phone to navigate and liaise with the medical system.

An app is projected to launch in Q1 2026, she told AFROTECH™. Users will be able to schedule time with a healthcare advocate who can be present virtually during appointments with the OBGYN or midwife. In emergencies, they can click an immediate-access button to reach healthcare advocates who can help  interface with the medical system.

Pregnant and Black will also offer training for family members to become medical advocates, which can be booked via the app or web platform, as well as a community forum.

“We know that 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. So that’s four out of every five women,” Rayford mentioned. “So we can be doing something.”

Raising Funds

Those interested in onboarding onto the app can join the waitlist. Rayford is currently raising funds to support the app’s launch. 

“I have this awareness that a lot of the technological innovations are not necessarily coming from our communities,” she mentioned. “So with that, is the also the lack of funding. And I’ve experienced firsthand how necessary and critical funding is, and the gap that there is for the solutions that are being led and created by Black women.”

Rayford has an active Givebutter account for Pregnant and Black to collect donations. As a 501(c)3, all donations made to the organization are tax deductible.