Black women are More Likely to Die During Childbirth SHOWCASE

Recently in a conversation with my girlfriend, we were thinking about our future together. We discussed marriage, homes, and eventually children. The topic of a hospital birth came up and I assumed that it would be the safest best place to have a child. My girlfriend disagreed and said it had to be a black hospital or a black midwife. I was wondering why it matters so much to her, but the next information she told me mortified me. She told me that as a black woman she was two-three times more likely to die from childbirth. 

The CDC states that “Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.” This statistic is based solely on prejudice because the CDC also states that “Most pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Racial and ethnic disparities in pregnancy-related deaths have persisted over time.” PBS states other statistics including that black infants are twice as more likely to die than white infants, this is the biggest gap ever record since 1850 (15 years before the end of slavery). In a society where we have the most advanced medical technology, there is no reason that black babies should be dying at the same rate they were during slavery, there is white supremacy hiding in our health care system committing genocide on the black population. 

This issue goes deeper than even childbirth, black women have been wronged by the medical industry since the beginning of America. At the beginning of the 1830s starts the experimentation on black (sometimes pregnant) women. Almost all of the southern medical works from this time period were slave experiments (VOX YT). This lead doctors (that still have statues up in Central Park) to come to claims that “black people don’t feel pain or anxiety since they are a different species” These works are absolutely sickening and happened not long ago, this type of systematic racism is still in the medical world today, but how do we try and fix it?

All people deserve to feel safe at the doctor’s office and this statistic cannot be ignored. My girlfriend is only 19 years old and has already planned for her future away from the mainstream hospital system because of this statistic and other prejudices. The best way to prevent these types of prejudices is; to implement affirmative action programs in the health care industry, promote black-owned/black staffed hospitals, and inform the public about these statistics. This is a systematic form of eugenics that must be stopped, women and their babies should not die during childbirth just because of their race.

Related Media:

 PBS video 10 min video going deeper into the issue:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-are-black-mothers-and-infants-far-more-likely-to-die-in-u-s-from-pregnancy-related-causes

CDC article:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html

VOX video about racism in the medical industry

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfYRzxeMdGs&t=7s&ab_channel=Vox

Works cited: 

Racial and ethnic disparities continue in pregnancy-related deaths. (2019, September 06). Retrieved February 21, 2021, from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html

Voxdotcom, director. The US Medical System Is Still Haunted by Slavery. YouTube, YouTube, 7 Dec. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfYRzxeMdGs. 

NewsHour, PBS. “Why Are Black Mothers and Infants Far More Likely to Die in U.S. from Pregnancy-Related Causes?” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 18 Apr. 2018, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/why-are-black-mothers-and-infants-far-more-likely-to-die-in-u-s-from-pregnancy-related-causes.