(NEW YORK) — Expectant mothers Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac both died from preventable childbirth complications, their families say, and the women’s deaths have had a devastating effect on their loved ones.

Gibson, 30, died just 13 days after the birth of her son in October 2019, when, according to Gibson’s family, her health concerns were ignored by medical providers. About six months later, in April 2020, Isaac, 26, died following an emergency C-section that the family says stemmed from medical negligence. Now, their partners and families are committed to bringing awareness and change to the alarming Black maternal mortality rate in the United States.

Directors Paula Eiselt and Tonya Lewis Lee explore these two women’s stories, their families’ perseverance and the maternal health care crisis in “Aftershock”, an original documentary from Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News Studios, streaming Tuesday, July 19, on Hulu.

Following the deaths of two young women due to childbirth complications, two bereaved families galvanize activists, birth workers, and physicians to reckon with one of the most pressing American crises today: the U.S. maternal health crisis.

The documentary follows Omari Maynard and Bruce McIntyre, Gibson’s and Isaac’s partners who connected shortly after Issac’s death, bonding over their losses while learning to navigate their lives as grieving single fathers. They are joined in their fight for justice along with Shamony Gibson’s mother, Shawnee Benton Gibson, and medical professionals like Dr. Neel Shah, chief medical officer of Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health.

“We are thrilled to partner with Disney’s Onyx Collective and ABC News to honor and uplift the lives of Shamony Gibson and Amber Rose Isaac,” Eiselt and Lewis Lee said. “We hope audiences will be as inspired and empowered as we are by their families’ trailblazing work to ensure the best birthing outcomes for all Americans.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every two in three pregnancy-related deaths is preventable. A 2020 report found that non-Hispanic Black women experienced a higher pregnancy-related mortality rate than other racial and ethnic groups, suffering at a rate nearly three times higher than Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women. For every 100,000 live births, there were 55.3 deaths among non-Hispanic Black women of all ages compared to 18.2 among Hispanic women and 19.1 among non-Hispanic white women. In New York, where Gibson and Isaac both lived, non-Hispanic Black women were 5 times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than non-Hispanic white women according to a 2018 report from the New York State Department of Health.

“Aftershock” explores these disparities and the efforts of many to resolve them in a push for medical autonomy, accountability and freedom.

“‘Aftershock’” is an emotional and urgent story that demands our attention,” Tara Duncan, president of Onyx Collective, said. “Paula and Tonya have captured the resilience and will of Black families to ignite a positive impact on this national health crisis for women in America.”

ABC News’ Emma Egan and Eric M. Strauss contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A New York man is determined not to give up when it comes to fighting the rare disease he’s been living with the last two years.

Anthony Di Laura first noticed something was unusual back in the summer of 2020.

“I was having stomach pain. I thought it was a stomachache. And I realized my belly button was protruding a little bit. No other symptoms,” Di Laura told “Good Morning America.” “It came, it went away after a week. But when it came back, my wife said, ‘Let’s go to the doctor. Let’s go to the gastroenterologist.'”

After visiting a gastroenterologist, Di Laura was referred to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he received a diagnosis in August 2020 of pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP), a rare disease where mucus-secreting tumors grow in the abdominal area, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.

Since his diagnosis, Di Laura and his family have been on a roller coaster of highs and lows.

The 35-year-old and his wife Jackie Cucullo welcomed their first child, a son named JP, on New Year’s Day in 2021 and daughter Lila Rae just last month — two big life events for the couple, who call their children “miracle babies.”

“We tried for two years to get pregnant. And miraculously I did out of nowhere, right before starting in vitro,” Cucullo told “GMA.” “While Anthony was undergoing chemotherapy, I became pregnant again right before his health declined. And that is extremely rare in itself while someone is undergoing chemotherapy. So we feel blessed for our two children for sure.”

Di Laura had to endure chemotherapy for seven months and elected to undergo cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC — a major surgery with a type of heated chemotherapy — also nicknamed the “mother of all surgeries” or MOAS, three times with different doctors and medical teams, all in an effort to get better.

“It is the most miserable feeling in the world that nobody should ever go through,” Di Laura said of his day-to-day life. “Every day is a battle. Every day is a challenge.”

The chemo and surgeries didn’t yield the results Di Laura was hoping for and doctors began telling him that he was inoperable.

“This gets me every time. I hate talking about it. My last hospital stay … the shift doctor who was in charge came into our room and said, ‘What is your plan?’ I looked at him, I said, ‘What’s my plan? I want to get better.’ He goes, ‘Nobody will operate on you in this hospital … Your best bet is to go on hospice and live a comfortable life until the end.’ That’s what he said,” Di Laura recalled.

Throughout the journey, Di Laura, Cucullo and their family refused to give up hope. In March, the couple received promising news from someone through their PMP Pals support group.

“One of the women heard about another young man whose story was so ironically similar to Anthony’s,” Cucullo said. “They’re even close in age as well. [The woman] immediately called us and she said, ‘I dropped to my knees when I heard his story.'”

According to that support group contact, the other man was “the first person in this country to have a multi-visceral organ transplant” at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, with Dr. Anil Vaidya.

“[Vaidya] is from the U.K. [and] came here to essentially help people like my husband and various other people for other organ transplants,” Cucullo said. “On March 3, I made my first phone call to [the Cleveland Clinic] and that was when the process started for Anthony to be listed as an organ transplant recipient.”

Di Laura and Cucullo have since met the man, Andy Voge, and sought out his doctor, [Vaidya]. After multiple denials and appeals to their insurance company, Di Laura was finally approved to get on the transplant list last week, the first step to getting a modified multi-visceral transplant.

Di Laura’s insurance company, Empire BlueCross BlueShield, confirmed the company had overturned the previous denials for Di Laura to receive treatment at the Cleveland Clinic.

“Together with Mr. Di Laura’s medical team, our clinical team made the decision to cover Mr. Di Laura’s procedure with the surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic,” the company said in a statement to “GMA.” “The transplant surgeon provided additional information to demonstrate this procedure has shown early promise in case reports from the U.K. and could be the only option left that may improve health outcomes for Mr. Di Laura. We will continue to support him and his family as we move forward.”

Cucullo told “GMA” that, as of Monday, her husband had been officially added to the organ transplant list.

“The surgery needs to happen and the entire team [at the Cleveland Clinic] is very confident in Anthony’s success […],” Cucullo said. “Anthony and Andy alike can spread the word and they can be the torch holders to say, ‘This is a new way. We can beat this disease.’ As tough of a surgery it might be and a long recovery, this gives hope to thousands of people.”

No matter what happens, Di Laura said he hopes to impart one message to his children, above all others.

“Always fight. Always keep hope and never give up because somebody says it’s impossible,” he said.

“I’ve never taken no for an answer and I’m not going to start now when it’s going to save my life to live with my family,” he added. “So I want my kids to know that never give up in the face of anything because somebody says no. There will always be a way around it. There are always new ideas or always new inventions. There always will be an answer. You just can’t give up and that goes for everything in life.”

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(NEW YORK) — When Kate Coleman found out she was pregnant, she was overjoyed, she said. She and her husband shared the happy news with family and friends.

But three months later — a heartbreaking ultrasound. The fetus had a fatal brain malformation called anencephaly, a condition where parts of the brain and skull are missing. Coleman’s doctors told her she had a choice: continue with the pregnancy, or seek an in-clinic abortion.

“There are other people in the world [who] would choose to carry to term. For me, it was not the right choice,” Coleman said. “To know that either I was going to miscarry at some point [or] I was going to give birth to a baby that would immediately die — I couldn’t make that choice.”

Coleman had an in-clinic abortion procedure in January 2021 in her home state of Massachusetts. In the U.S., roughly half of abortions are in-clinic procedures, often referred to as surgical abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The other half are medication abortions, done with what is known as the abortion pill.

Today, in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, at least 12 states have banned nearly all abortion services, with more states likely to follow. In the fallout, the Biden administration and abortion advocates alike have rushed to shore up protections for abortion pills, which are legally and practically easier to protect than in-clinic abortions.

The Justice Department, for example, suggested it could take action against states that ban medication abortion because the pills are FDA approved for everyone in the U.S., no matter state of residence.

Meantime, abortion advocates are expanding underground networks to quietly ship the pills to places where abortion is now illegal.

But some doctors and advocates worry that shifting the focus to abortion pills leaves behind people who need or want an in-clinic abortion. For some pregnant people, in-clinic abortions are medically necessary because of an underlying medical condition, or if the pregnancy is more advanced. But for others, it’s simply a more appealing option because it’s nearly 100% effective and can be completed in 10-15 minutes by a trained medical provider.

There are two types of in-clinic abortion options, but both use suction to remove the contents of the uterus. The first and most common is called vacuum aspiration, typically offered up to 13 weeks of pregnancy. If a pregnancy is further along, doctors may opt for a procedure called dilation and evacuation, which uses suction and medical tools to empty the uterus.

Medication abortions, or abortion pills, are typically two medications taken at home that initiate a miscarriage. The process can take two to three days to complete, and most people experience cramping and bleeding heavier than a normal period.

“Medication abortions are FDA approved up until 10 weeks – that’s 70 days,” said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent and board-certified OG/GYN. “There are pros and cons to this approach when compared to a surgical abortion. It depends on the situation that the woman is in, both socially, logistically, work-wise, family-wise.”

Some women may also have underlying medication conditions, including clotting and bleeding disorders, that would make a medication abortion risky.

Others simply “want something that’s definitive and over with — so they have a sense of closure,” said Dr. Elizabeth Langen, associate clinical professor of maternal-fetal medicine at the University of Michigan. “The bleeding tends to be a lot less. It’s a little bit more controlled. And for some people, that’s a better either emotional or medical option.”

Coleman says she feels “lucky” that despite the heartbreak of her first pregnancy, she had access to a medical team that helped guide her through the process.

“Everybody was really kind,” she said. She underwent general anesthesia and said she woke up with what felt like “bad period cramps” before taking some Tylenol and going home. Patients who receive abortion procedures earlier in pregnancy typically receive local anesthesia and additional medication to help ease pain and anxiety, Langen said.

Langen who specializes in high-risk pregnancies, says it’s important to have access to both types of abortion — surgical and medication induced — to keep patients safe. While medication abortion is very safe if taken correctly and early on during pregnancy, she said she worries about women who might be too fearful to visit a doctor if something goes wrong.

“Taking away the option and the safety of in-person procedures is unfair and unjust — and potentially unsafe,” Langen said.

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