The United States is forcing births on women despite having fundamental problems with its maternity care system. Many OB-GYNs cite the overturning of Roe v. Wade as a factor that gave rise to more maternal deaths, in addition to more infant deaths. But those hit hardest are groups of women who already face racism during maternity care. Healthcare professionals are not treating non-white mothers with the same care and respect their white counterparts do. Black mothers in particular suffer the most from medical mistreatment in healthcare, as their pain during pregnancy is often ignored by professionals. As a result, Black women have the highest maternal mortality rates at 69.9%. Nick Powers, an educator, described what that statistic means in comparison to the most dangerous jobs in America. Jobs that are notably high-risk are nothing compared to the risk of death a Black woman faces just to have one child.
Black women were also reported to suffer the most from discrimination during maternity care among other demographics of mothers at 40.1%, followed shortly by multiracial women at 39.4%, and Hispanic women at 36.6% according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Common forms of mistreatment during maternity care involve the following: receiving no response to requests for help; being shouted at or scolded; unprotected physical privacy; and being withheld treatment/forced to accept unwanted treatment by healthcare professionals. Because health professionals fail to treat these mothers with respect, the CDC’s findings also report that these mothers feel ashamed and discouraged from asking further questions concerning maternity care to their healthcare providers.
Privileged Black women don’t fare better, and they suffer from further complications during pregnancies to postpartum compared to their uninsured white counterparts. Many of these deaths were preventable, which makes all of this a human rights emergency. Maybe if many healthcare providers were not dismissive of these mothers-to-be and gave them the monitoring and attention they deserved, perhaps they would’ve lived. Black lives simply don’t matter unless the healthcare system provides Black women and other women of color the same care and respect their white counterparts are so often afforded.
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