The US has the highest maternal mortality rate among first world countries, and tragically, over 80% of these deaths are preventable. The rates are disproportionately high due to the sheer number of African American maternal deaths. African American mothers are 2-3 times more likely to die from maternal complications than their white counterparts. The CDC considers this disparity to be one of the biggest public health inequities in the United States.
So why are African American mothers at a significantly higher risk of maternal death? Black women’s concerns have too often been ignored during childbirth, resulting in a national public health crisis of this scale. Misuse of racial categorization in science and medicine can heighten misconceptions and bias toward black mothers as researchers often overemphasize race while overlooking other components like socioeconomic factors, environmental stressors, and systemic racism.
Data from NCHS, CDC, and Experts via Statista
Money Does Not Lessen the Effects of Discrimination
However, economic status doesn’t always protect Black mothers or their children from this terrible disparity. Even if a Black American woman can afford the best healthcare and insurance, she is still at high risk of maternal death. The richest, most educated Black women are now more likely to die during childbirth and up to one year post-birth than the poorest white women.
A Major Systemic Issue, Not a One-Off
One study examines the arbitrary nature of racial categorization in research on why Black women are at higher risk of preeclampsia—a condition caused by hypertension that is the second leading cause of maternal deaths. The study compares international studies to US-based ones to explore why preeclampsia was most common amongst African American women. The study concludes that African American women experience mistreatment during natal care, whether implicitly or explicitly, due to stereotypes rather than inherent biological differences. This mistreatment can include dismissal of symptoms and pain, delayed diagnoses, or inadequate treatment.
Researchers from Science Direct assembled a list of experiences that Black women from different economic backgrounds and levels of education shared about their childbirth journeys. Among a plethora of horrific stories, one woman described an experience in which she suffered severe pre-labor pains. Her healthcare providers nonchalantly told her that there was nothing wrong and that she should go home. They only took her pain seriously once she started bleeding. She later found out she had a detached placenta and that both she and her child would’ve died if she had gone home.
Compassionate Care Saves Lives
Annalies Winney and Rachel Bervell from John Hopkins University proposed that black maternal mortality can be prevented by increasing access to doulas and midwives that support and advocate for birth givers during childbirth and by expanding Medicaid’s coverage of mothers and infants to one year after birth, as many deaths can occur during that time. As 65% of black birth givers rely on Medicaid, the recent proposals to cut its nationwide budget threaten what little coverage they already have. They also recommend access to more paid maternity leave in the US, as this can have a major impact on a mother’s ability to recover from childbirth.
In order to achieve a truly equitable future in the medical industry, we must reform how medicine is practiced and dissipate the myths and stereotypes imposed on African American women steeped in racism and inequality. All birth givers deserve the right to a safe and healthy birthing experience with high-quality pre- to post-natal care, regardless of their identity. The experience of pregnancy and childbirth, which is the happiest moment of some people’s lives, shouldn’t be tainted by the fear that it could become a frightening or even fatal one.
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