Hear Her: Addressing Racial Inequities in Maternal Deaths

A prewritten article from CDC's Hear Her® campaign for journalists, bloggers and other media to adapt, by Wanda Barfield, MD, MPH, RADM USPHS (Ret.), director of CDC's Division of Reproductive Health.

Valencia's story

Valencia, one of the women featured in the campaign, had headaches and dizziness in her first pregnancy. When her symptoms got worse and she reported them, she felt no one took her seriously — she didn't know whom to tell or how to speak up for herself. Her primary care provider finally helped her get the care she needed.

The inequity

Every year, too many women in the United States have severe pregnancy-related complications, and some die — most of those deaths preventable. The burden is not equal:

• American Indian and Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, and Black women are 2 to 3 times as likely as White women to die of pregnancy-related causes.

Why

• Structural racism and implicit bias play a role — starting prenatal care late, for instance, is linked to personal experiences of bias and racism.
• Protection isn't equal: more education generally means better health, yet Black women with more education still face a higher risk of maternal death.
• Quality of care: hospitals that deliver a higher share of Black women have poorer outcomes for both Black and White women.

What CDC is doing

CDC supports Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs) around the country. They receive quality data on the circumstances of each pregnancy-related death — including documented bias, discrimination and racism — and make recommendations to prevent future deaths; CDC uses the data to understand maternal mortality nationwide.

What helps

• Standardized, quality care — the right care in the right place at the right time.
• Care beyond delivery: into the postpartum period, up to a year after birth, when over half of pregnancy-related deaths occur.
• Listening: women like Valencia who feel ignored or dismissed may stop asking questions, and providers who don't fully listen can miss warning signs that need immediate care.

Hear Her asks partners, friends, family and health care providers to really listen when she says something doesn't feel right. Acting quickly could save her life. More at cdc.gov/HearHer.

Sources

Based on "Matte Article: Addressing Maternal Health Inequities," Hear Her, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The campaign portrait of Valencia is left out.