Racial Disparities in Maternal and Infant Health, A long-standing common occurrence, what is the solution?

Racial Disparities within healthcare have become a high priority after the Covid-19 pandemic began, it shed light on the issues at hand where, doctors and nurses were not properly equipped to recognize the signs in people of color (POC), when there a medical emergency getting ready to occur.

Jazmin Long, the president of Birthing Beautiful Communities, BBC is a place in Cleveland, Ohio, that aids black women in their process of giving birth. “Structural racism, poverty. Those are the things that are leading to poor birth outcomes. Toxic stress caused by racism leads to extreme prematurity, and that is the leading cause of infant death.” According to Pub Med’s study, “Nurse workforce diversity and reduced risk of severe adverse maternal outcomes” There is a variety of efforts are underway to increase workforce diversity and expand access to doula and other services to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce disparities.

Long, continued to talk more about the statistics, of medical racism and maternal and infant mortality, “So we know medical racism is a very real thing. Unconscious bias is a real thing. And for centuries, so from the time that African Americans came to this country, we already had a 1.6 rate of mortality. And in some places like New York, you might have a 12 times the rate of infant mortality for black babies.” Long, shared with me an example that she heard a doctor use about postpartum hemorrhaging (PPH). “When doctors are talking about hemorrhaging, which is when you lose blood, after your labor and delivery process, what they are looking for is paleness. So, the paleness of an African American woman is going to look completely different than a white person, right? So yes, when a doctor is not listening, not believing women when they say they are experiencing certain things. Believing that if I say my pain is at a level eight, you and your mind are gonna say, well, she’s really at a five, she’s just being dramatic. Her skin is thicker, things that still exist to this day that should not be.”

Dr. Heather Rice, who is also a part of BBC, shared the importance of having a Doula with you during your pregnancy journey. “They’re there with someone who they feel can advocate for their needs and they can also speak up when they feel that their needs aren’t being addressed. Even celebrities such as Beyonce and Serena Williams, both spoke about how they didn’t feel that they were seen and heard in the labor and delivery room and how that impacted their birthing experience.” Both Beyonce and Serena Williams, experienced emergency C-sections to give birth, which was due to added stress and health issues.

Rice, had a lot to say about the insights into the reasoning behind the increased number of premature babies in people of color, which has a lot to do with toxic stress. “The prematurity…younger babies tend to have more challenges. Just because they haven’t been able to fully developed her lungs are not as developed. Of course, we’ve come very far in being able to help our NICU babies to do very well.”

Jasmine Frazier, a mother to a toddler son, shared her experience on how she prepared for giving birth, and how she took it upon herself to ask questions to her doctor and family members and watch YouTube videos as research. “My original doctor wasn’t a person of color, but the other doctor who I went to go see, when I had gotten called in for high blood pressure was a person of color. And you know, listening and talking to her and she gave me her experience and ensured me, ‘everything was gonna be okay don’t panic, you’ll be fine’. It’s having that reassurance you know, that definitely did help and ease my mind going into it”.

Frazier further explained an experience that had happened to her sister-in-law after she gave birth,

” She ended up having seizures after she gave birth to my niece because her doctor ignored the fact that protein levels in her urine were a bit higher than normal… One thing that I would recommend for other mothers throughout the pregnancy process is don’t be afraid to speak up and let your doctor know when something is going on with you”.

Possible Solution to combat racial disparities:

There has been an initiative to provide a variety of efforts to increase workforce diversity and expand access to doula and other services to improve maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce racial disparities. Studies have been conducted to show that a more diverse healthcare workforce and using a doula service may improve birth outcomes. Doulas are trained non-clinicians who help in assisting a pregnant woman before, during, and/or after childbirth by providing physical assistance, labor coaching, emotional support, and postpartum care. The percentage of maternal health physicians and registered nurses that are Hispanic or Black is lower than their average share of the female population that are of childbearing age. The Biden Administration’s Blueprint which was released in July after the June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Blueprint includes efforts by HRSA to develop a maternal care pipeline to provide scholarships to students from underrepresented communities in health professions and nursing schools to grow and diversify the maternal care workforce.

For people in Ohio, and 26 other states, Medicaid has been extended from the historical average of 60 days to 12 months after the birth of their child. HHS approved this in August of 2022. This will help many women who are struggling with post-partum or had a tough delivery/ pregnancy complications.

Black Women and other women of color experience racial disparities in the delivery room, here are some solutions: https://t.co/4S9yB6lGbf

— Raygene English (@RaygeneTV) December 16, 2022

Visit my previous article, where you get to personally hear the voices of Jazmin Long and Dr.Heather Rice, and their initiatives with Birthing Beautiful Communities and a story shared by my mother, who explained how it was her body and her doctor refused to listen to what she had to say.