It’s no secret that the Black community has disproportionately less access to good medical care compared with whites. One aspect of this lack of quality care is in maternal child health. Here the double whammy of racism and sexism are painfully at work, yet it is a little known problem outside the Black community.
Unfortunately, it is nothing new. The United States began keeping infant mortality records in 1850. At that time infant mortality in the Black community was 340/1000 as compared to 217/1000 in the white community. Infant mortality dropped among all groups in the early 1900’s. By 1960 the United States had the 12th highest rate of infant mortality among developed countries. Currently the United States is 32/35 among developed countries. The most common factor cited in high infant mortality rates in the Black community is low birth weight. Black infants are more than twice as likely to die as white infants.
Among Black mothers, mortality (defined as death within a year of giving birth) is higher than it was 25 years ago. This translates to 50,000 preventable deaths every year–an increase of 200% from 1993-2014. Black women are 3-4 times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than their white counterparts. A recent New York Times article cites pre-eclampsia (gestational high blood pressure) and eclampsia related seizures as the leading cause of birth complications and maternal death. Black women are more than 60% more likely to experience pre-eclampsia and eclampsia than white women.
Sadly, none of this is news in the global community. In 2014 the United Nations Commission for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called on the United States to “…eliminate racial disparities in the field of reproductive health and standardize data collection on maternal and infant mortality rates….” To date, no progress has been made toward this end.
The societal and systemic racism in the United States creates conditions that lead to higher mortality rates for mothers and infants in the Black community. Racial bias means that the concerns of pregnant black women are more likely to be dismissed by their (often white) doctors. Societal bias blamed black women by claiming they were less educated; however, several studies have demonstrated that black women with college degrees are twice as likely to die as white women with less education. Further, such social bias led to blaming black women for the deaths of their infants, when the actual causes of death were due to the larger issue of racism.
Dr. Arline Geronimus of the University of Michigan School of Public Health linked the stress of living in socially and culturally based racism as a central cause of poor pregnancy outcomes. Her research showed that racism (and sexism) creates toxic stress for Black women and this in turn leads to low birth weight, increased strain on mothers and more pregnancy/birth complications.
While much of the occupant’s base is hollering about being pro-life, their “commitment” to being pro-life seems to have more to do with white lives than Black lives. Sadly, this should broker no surprise.
Pro-life is a much larger issue than being “pro birth.” Benedictine sister Joan Chittister cites the difference between being pro-life and pro-birth. Being pro-life means every child is a wanted child and every child and mother has equal access to pre-natal and post-natal care. Every child and mother has equal access to food, affordable housing, healthcare, education and child care. Being pro-life means black and white mothers and their children are valued equally. In her 2004 interview with Bill Moyers, Chittister spoke passionately about being more broadly pro-life than just being opposed to abortion. Sadly, many Americans are much more articulate about what they are against than what they are for.
Just when we think the pain of racism cannot go any deeper, we see yet another facet to America’s Original Sin.
The Irreverent Reverend 