Black Women Face Higher Maternal Mortality Rates than Ever Before

Maternal Mortality has been a national issue for women for decades, however, in recent years it has become a pervading issue specifically for black women on both a national and local scale. Pregnancy complications are among the top ten leading causes of death for black females in the United States and according to research done by the CDC, black women are three times as likely to die from a pregnancy related cause than white women. 

Although the numbers of maternal mortality are low in some cities like Akron, the rate of black maternal mortality has sparked significantly in others. “It’s like four times the rate of white women in Cuyahoga County,” says Holly Pangrace, Mental Health Coordinator at University Hospitals’ Ahuja Rainbow Center for Women and Children.

This recent spike in black maternal mortality rates can be attributed to factors ranging from a lack of access to things like transportation and childcare, housing insecurity, stress, and mental health issues in mothers, many of which officials say are connected in some way to institutionalized racism. 

“I think that all of those things that are really coming to light nationally are the things that are impacting us locally on our healthcare outcomes especially as it relates to maternal morbidity and mortality,” says Dr. Jennifer Savitski, Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cleveland Clinic Akron General. 

In a study done for the Ohio Department of Health regarding the proportion of pregnancy related deaths compared to live births for women of different ethnicities, research showed that from 2008 to 2016 black women accounted for thirty-four percent of maternal mortalities while only accounting for seventeen percent of live births that occurred during the eight-year period. 

“There is some data out there that shows that medical residents come into OBGYN practice with the idea that black women are more tolerant of pain. There are all these bizarre myths out there but they’re just that– they’re myths,” Pangrace says. 

“The systems are failing.. people and the impact of structural racism is inherent throughout systems in particular in health systems and so those health systems need to be aware and need to provide accessible supportive services to make sure there’s equity.”

Because the numbers of maternal mortalities are lower in Akron compared to other Ohio cities, many health organizations in the Akron area do not have initiatives aimed at the issue.

“We specifically in our community do not do anything specifically related to maternal mortality only,” says Shaleeta Smith, Community Health Supervisor for Summit County Public Health. “All the efforts we do are around infant vitality and that encompasses maternal health and infant health and infant mortality initiatives.” 

This may be where the problem lies. Although the maternal mortality rate in the Akron area is low, the maternal mortality rates for black women across Ohio and the nation are quite the opposite. Offcials say the solution starts with education.

In Ohio, that education has begun in some cities with initiatives like CenteringPregnancy, an evidence-based program that brings together small groups of pregnant women in order to educate them about issues like postpartum depression and maternal mortality rates.

“Centering Pregnancy is one of the models of prenatal care that has been proven to improve those rates,” says Pangrace.

Since the start of the initiative in 2010, it has proven to have a successful impact on the community. Health officials from hospitals across the state have worked together to brainstorm new best practices like CenteringPregnancy in order to start working toward getting rid of racial disparities in women’s healthcare.

“Now it’s a matter of trying to get these best practices into healthcare systems,” says Savitski. At Akron General Hospital, Dr. Savistski and her team are in the early stages of joining the March of Dimes initiative which looks at policy, reported data and other important factors to determine the best way to combat the mortality rate of black mothers and how to address maternal mortality as a whole.

Applying these practices may seem like an easy task from the outside perspective, however women’s health officials know that the difficulty begins in the way gender data is collected from the patients and reevaluating the way this data is collected may be the first step in working toward the solution.

“The difference between us asking the patient how she identifies and us making assumptions on how we identify that patient is really going to help us to discern what race or ethnicity this individual is and what are the things That we need to think about as it relates to that person and the potential outcomes that they have,” says Savitski

Institutionalized racism within the healthcare system has proven to be a top factor in the delay of the implementation of more practices like CenteringPregnancy that focus specifically on maternal mortality rates, especially those of black women in Ohio.

Savitski says that maternal mortality rates represent a significant aspect of health concerns within the community. “If we don’t pay attention to these trends that were seeing in the area of maternal outcomes… I think that we’re really neglecting a significant berometer for the health of the community.”

Black women face higher maternal mortality rates than women of other races or ethnicities on both a local and national scalehttps://t.co/7vRlgE1Z4t

— Halena Sepulveda (@HalenaSepulveda) October 26, 2021