Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson sounded the alarm Friday on high maternal mortality rates as the Bronx celebrates Black Maternal Health Week.

Gibson says she is hoping to break the cycle and take a major step toward health care equity and justice.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Black women in NYC are more than three times more likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause than white women.

"They are often not receiving pre-natal and post-natal care they are often told by doctors that they have to have cesarians, C-sections,” said Gibson.

Gibson added she’s pushing to build a Bronx birthing center in the future, so that women there could have all the care they need for a successful pregnancy.

"Successful childbirth, they can deliver healthy babies and really live fruitful productive lives,” she acknowledged.

Statistics show that in the Bronx there are over 36 deaths per 100 thousand live births, higher than the rest of the city and country.

"It's really important that you have someone who understands the community that you're coming from, some of the external factors that you're dealing with outside of being pregnant and going through the process of birth,” said resident Nicole Jean-Baptiste.

Black Maternal Health Week runs through April 17.