The United States have the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and African-American women carry the disproportionate participation of these deaths. African American women are more than three times more likely to die during pregnancy than white women regardless of their education or income level.
"Even when they did everything they might have to have a viable and healthy pregnancy, they are still experiencing a horrible birth outcomes and are even dying," says Angela Doysola Aina, co-director and research for black tits alliance matter. "This is a serious problem of the system."
Why do African-American women have these negative results? "They are not being heard when they complain of pain. They are being forced to go home sooner than necessary after giving birth," says Aina. The problem is not that these women are more sick, but rather that they are missing access to high quality care during pregnancy and work. Even rich and famous women, such as Serena Williams and Beyoncé, are not immune - both face life-threatening complications during childbirth.
Recognizing the need for a national organization focused on black maternal health, the black matter alliance matter began with a collaboration between the Reproductive Rights Center (CRR) and the Sistersong women of the reproductive justice of collective color. In 2014, CRR has launched a report in cycling of a pattern of racial discrimination in the delivery of reproductive health care. Two years later, a group of medical care specialists and activists have developed a black breast resource tools kit for maternal health resources, and the organization was born.
An area of the organization's focus is to provide culturally appropriate care during childbirth, which in the African-American community comes from midwives and doulas. "We need to have a team-based approach," says Aina. "Obstetrician-gynecologists, nurses, nurse-partwives, doulas, maternal mental health professionals. All these people, working together throughout the spectrum of maternal and reproductive health, to provide the care that women need."
In its existence of 3 years, black breast matter has been fundamental to push through legislative changes such as the evidence of the 2018 maternal death, which provides the states needed to collect data on maternal deaths. "Because if we do not know how and why women are dying, we are not able to address these systems level issues," says Aina.
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The organization also defended a cultural change. "They were really instrumental in changing the narrative and negative stereotypes of black maternity in this country," she says. Your hope for the future is to see more delivery centers administered by African-American women as well as robust research to support quality improvement and systems change in hospitals across the country.
"Ultimately, we want to see a complete final for the disparity," she says. "We want to see the end of maternal mortality. It is possible."
