Blog Post #10: Black women are more likely to die during childbirth because of racial bias. What can we do about it?
What? Implicit bias in the medical field? My friend and I recently attended a film and panel discussion on Black maternal mortality rates, not Black infant mortality rates, which at least I had heard of. The film “The Naked Truth: Death by Delivery,” presented on April 13th, 2019 by Black Women for Wellness as part of Black Maternal Health Week in Lancaster, California, provided facts and first-person accounts of devastating medical care, or lack of care, for Black mothers-to-be due to racial bias.
In California there are 44 deaths of Black women per 100,000 live births in contrast with 13 deaths of White women per 100,000 live births. In New York City, Black women are twelve times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women.The film stated that the latest figures from the New York City’s Department of Health showed that college-educated Black women were twice as likely to have severe complications from pregnancy than White women who hadn’t graduated high school.
I had known about environmental issues, lack of rural health facilities, cutbacks in Medicaid, and other economic considerations affecting maternal mortality rates, NOT how doctors, nurses, and the whole hospital care system’s racial bias contributed to this horrendous situation. One 2015 study, referred to in a Los Angeles Times article, surveyed a group of White medical students about physiological differences between White and Black people. One finding from the survey: “About half held factually inaccurate beliefs, such as Black people having thicker skin, which swayed treatment decisions.”
What can you do about this? There are two upcoming bills you could learn about. And, wherever you live, contact your elected officials, health professionals, and others to weigh in on your support of implicit bias training in the medical field.
Highlights from the S.3363 Bill Introduced in Senate by Senator Kamala Harris (08/22/2018)
Maternal Care Access and Reducing Emergencies Act or the Maternal CARE Act
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to award grants to health professional training programs for training that addresses implicit bias (e.g., racial bias) in the practice of obstetrics and gynecology.
ACT: CA SB 464 California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act introduced by Senator Holly Mitchell
FROM THE LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST
This bill would make legislative findings relating to implicit bias and racial disparities in maternal mortality rates. The bill would require a hospital that provides perinatal care, and an alternative birth center or a primary clinic that provides services as an alternative birth center, to implement an evidence-based implicit bias program, as specified, for all health care providers involved in perinatal care of patients within those facilities. The bill would require the health care provider to complete initial basic training through the program and a refresher course every 2 years thereafter, or on a more frequent basis if deemed necessary by the facility.
This bill would make legislative findings relating to implicit bias and racial disparities in maternal mortality rates.
This is a critical issue that I hope we rise up together to tackle.
To begin conversations about racial injustice in general, please visit the Road to Racial Justice Game website: www.roadtoracialjustice.org.
