And there are so many more untold stories of Black women dying during or after childbirth across the U.S. The racial disparities in maternal mortality continue to need our attention. Black women are at least three times more likely than white women to die around the time of childbirth, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report<\/a> published in March that cited data from 2024. <\/p>\n It\u2019s important for the public to understand that the Black maternal mortality crisis is an American issue \u2014 and that it should matter to everyone, said Dr. Jacqueline C. Hairston<\/a>, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology (maternal fetal medicine) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician.<\/p>\n Hairston emphasized that \u201cwhen you are working to improve the outcomes of people who have the worst outcomes, you\u2019re ultimately going to change and improve the outcomes for all.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThis should matter to everyone because no one should die in childbirth, and we should institute protocols and use our research to protect everyone,\u201d she told HuffPost, stressing that \u201cBlack women are disproportionately dying or having poor outcomes.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re human. Black women are human beings … and [Black women] have the right to birth their child in the United States and not have a higher risk of dying,\u201d said Dr. LaTasha Seliby Perkins<\/a>, a family medicine physician. <\/p>\n Perkins also made the point that if society accepts the disproportionate maternal mortality rate for Black women, then \u201cwho\u2019s to say that these same issues may not pop up in another population?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBlack women are a large part of the workforce in this country \u2014 we are everywhere,\u201d she told HuffPost. \u201cWe are taxpayers, and we are workers, and we are educators, and we are doctors, and we are lawyers, and we are teachers, and we are a large part of the workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo if one population is affected in this way, when it comes to their mortality, everyone is then affected,\u201d she continued, before emphasizing, again, that the Black maternal mortality crisis should be viewed on a \u201chuman level\u201d \u2014 and that everyone should advocate for Black expectant mothers to have better health outcomes. <\/p>\n HuffPost spoke with fetal medicine and family medicine doctors to break down what\u2019s contributing to the disparity and the common myths surrounding it. Here\u2019s what to know. <\/p>\n There are major misconceptions about the Black maternal mortality rate, according to doctors.<\/p>\n Research has shown that disparities in maternal mortality rates affect Black women regardless of their socioeconomic status<\/a> or their background knowledge of maternal health.<\/p>\n Hairston pointed to the example of Smith, the midwife who dedicated much of her work<\/a> to improving outcomes in Black maternal health before she died after complications from childbirth. <\/p>\n Black women are not protected even when they have a \u201cdeeper level of education about maternal health and pregnancy and its complications,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Perkins also emphasized that despite any misconceptions about who is affected by the Black maternal health crisis, the racial disparities in maternal mortality rates affect all Black women, even those with access to great healthcare.<\/p>\n There are other misconceptions, too. Perkins said that conversations on Black maternal mortality sometimes only center on Black women dying during childbirth \u2014 but that it \u201cdoesn\u2019t begin and end only at delivery.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s before delivery, it\u2019s prenatal, then it\u2019s around delivery and also after delivery, what we call the fourth trimester,\u201d she said. \u201cPostpartum is also a time where Black women are still at very high risk.\u201d<\/p>\n The World Health Organization defines a maternal death<\/a> as a death that occurs during pregnancy, during childbirth or up to 42 days after pregnancy. <\/p>\n \u201cI want to make sure that people understand that Black maternal health doesn\u2019t just start and stop at the delivery,\u201d Perkins said. \u201cBut it\u2019s all that is surrounding the maternal health.\u201d<\/p>\n Drs Producoes via Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re still struggling to incorporate what the effects of racism are in pregnancy outcomes,\u201d said Northwestern Medicine’s Dr. Jacqueline C. Hairston.<\/p>\n Black expectant mothers face discrimination in healthcare systems in various ways. <\/p>\n Research has shown that structural racism and implicit racial biases<\/a> play crucial roles in the Black maternal mortality crisis. Rep. Summer Lee<\/a> (D-Pa.) recently pressed Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on this very issue during a hearing last month<\/a> that took place during Black Maternal Health Week. <\/p>\n When Lee asked Kennedy why his agency hadn\u2019t focused on \u201cputting forth serious policies\u201d that address national health crises, such as Black maternal mortality rates, Kennedy claimed that they were \u201cdoing more on maternal health than any other administration.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I said Black maternal health,\u201d Lee responded. But Kennedy tried to keep the focus on maternal health more generally, arguing that it \u201cincludes Blacks and whites.\u201d <\/p>\n Lee stressed to Kennedy that there needs to be a focus on why Black expectant mothers are dying at higher rates than any other racial group. \u201cThe thing is, is that they\u2019re actually not the same outcomes, which means that we need specific and intentional interventions for Black maternal health,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Hairston said that doctors often dismiss the symptoms Black expectant mothers are experiencing. She recalled that Williams, a professional athlete who \u201cyou would expect to know their body better than any person else,\u201d was nonetheless disregarded when she alerted her medical team about symptoms she was experiencing. <\/p>\n \u201cI think the dismissal of symptoms is one of the biggest things, and I think there are other ways that we can\u2019t quantify racism with research until all of our research really uses race as a proxy for racism,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re still struggling to incorporate what the effects of racism are in pregnancy outcomes.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no way to put into a survey how many times your symptoms might\u2019ve been dismissed by a physician or a nurse,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n Hairston noted that several other factors may contribute to the Black maternal health crisis, including a lack of access to quality pregnancy care, hospital closures, the availability of specialty care and whether an expectant mother has support from their job to make it to prenatal appointments.<\/p>\n She also said it\u2019s important to consider how providers are initiated into medicine. \u201cWho are they learning from? What are they learning?\u201d she questioned, before noting that having a diverse workforce is crucial.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re not investing in minorities being a part of the workforce… getting them into medical schools so that they can then become trainees and then become the faculty members and professors that are then feeding into the education system… it becomes a vicious cycle of not having enough providers in positions [who] look like the patients or the populations they serve,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n![\"\u201cWe\u2019re](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69f8d32b170000bf888445ca.jpeg\")
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