An increasingly large body of scientific work glaringly reveals that black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. 

The deadly disparities have a lot to do with how women of color are viewed and treated in U.S. society as well as the sad state of health care for the poor and disenfranchised. This article will discuss some of the factors that contribute to the early deaths of black women and what can be done about it. 

Lack of Quality Health Care 

It’s no secret that black women aren’t as healthy as their white counterparts, for various reasons. Perhaps the biggest reason is access to quality health care. To put it bluntly, health outcomes are intrinsically linked to economic levels. health inequities inherent in those with lower economic status means that chronic conditions often persist and/or get worse, leading to premature and largely preventable deaths.

According to a study from the National Institutes of Health, “Postpartum cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) and the blood pressure disorders preeclampsia and eclampsia were leading causes of maternal death for Black women.” These conditions were experienced by black women at five times the rate that white women suffered from them. According to the Center for Health Justice’a webinar series on maternal health inequities, the long history of unequal access of health care endured by the black woman lays at the hands of structural oppression perpetrated by the U.S. medical establishment. 

This manifestation of white supremacy, rooted in slavery, has very real effects that we see in the present-day American health care system. When slave holders saw black women as property, which allowed them to abuse their bodies with total disregard for their reproductive health, using them to procreate while dismissing any self-agency on the part of the black woman.According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, “In 2020, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic black women was 55.3 deaths per 100,000 live births, 2.9 times the rate for non-Hispanic white women.

Rates for non-Hispanic Black women were significantly higher than rates for non-Hispanic White and Hispanic women. The increases from 2019 to 2020 for non-Hispanic Black and Hispanic women were significant. The observed increase from 2019 to 2020 for non-Hispanic White women was not significant.”

This threat doesn’t just end at the life of the mother, but the mortality rate of black children is also affected. According to one source, the infant mortality rate among infants of Black women was 10.75 per 1,000 live births, the highest of any racial/ethnic group and nearly twice the national average of 5.67.

How To Improve Maternal Health For Black Women

According to one estimate, around 87% of reproductive-age black women have health insurance, which means a major effort is needed to improve access to medical help.

Particularly acute is the lack of preventative care, which covers such things as birth control and protection against sexually transmitted diseases.

If policy makers would push to expand health coverage to historically disenfranchised groups, including black women, their lifespans would increase tremendously. Adequate prenatal and maternity care is crucial to the health of all women.

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