Here are some truths we need to speak:
Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.
Black women are twice as likely to suffer from life-threatening pregnancy complications as white women.
These disparities for Black women transcend income and education levels and can’t be explained by other factors like genetics or lack of health care access.
It turns out that this issue centers on a simple and profound fact: often, when a Black woman walks into the doctor’s office or a hospital expressing issues with pain or discomfort, she is not taken seriously. She is not heard.
Black women across the country are facing a maternal mortality crisis in part because of racial bias in our nation’s health care delivery system, and it’s time to change that. That’s why I recently reintroduced the Maternal CARE Act, my bill with Congresswoman Alma Adams to fund implicit bias training throughout the health care system and to help providers identify high-risk pregnancies and provide culturally competent care.
Unconscious bias is common, but when you are a doctor dealing with a life in your hands, it’s critical that you recognize and check that bias.
Now, I’m going to share a story with you and I don’t mean to shock you, but it’s important to understand why we must treat women with the dignity they deserve.
My mother was a scientist — a breast cancer researcher — and she worked in a lab where she was one of a very few women, much less women of color. One day, she came home livid because she saw a male doctor walking around with a plate, and on it was a breast for everyone to see. A woman had just had a mastectomy.
My mother was upset because it showed a lack of understanding and sensitivity about the dignity of a woman’s body.
Passing my Maternal CARE Act is one step to ensuring our medical system finally treats women — especially Black women — with the dignity they deserve. What’s good for our Black mothers is good for our babies, families, and communities — and it’s good for the entire country.
