Maternal mortality rates are already much higher among Native people. The pandemic added another complication.

The first time that Cassandra Miles (Ojibwe) coached a client through labor during quarantine, she was making her way through the aisles of a QFC.

She had just received a FaceTime call. When she answered it, she was greeted with the image of her client breathing heavily in a hospital bed as the client’s mother held the phone over her face. Miles’ instincts kicked in before she could think: She instructed her client to take deep breaths while she absentmindedly wandered around the store, trying to finish her grocery run with her 4-year-old daughter in tow.