Health Disparities and Black Birthing People

Childbearing is riskier in the United States than in any other high-wealth country in the world. This is particularly true for Black Americans, who die of pregnancy-associated causes at three to four times the rate of White Americans. These untimely deaths related to child-–deaths that occur short of statistically expected life spans-–are referred to as “maternal mortality.” 

We say, “taken too soon,” as we murmur our condolences at the gravesite. This is indeed true, because most instances of Black maternal mortality are preventable. Also preventable, and widely unrecognized, are the years of devastating impacts on surviving children, spouses, partners, parents, and siblings. For them, a maternal death starts a long clock of emotional, physiological, social, and economic consequences that may emerge over months, years, and generations among the bereaved.

The Health Disparities and Black Birthing People project at the Health Humanities Lab, in close collaboration with the Office of Health Initiatives, seeks to explore issues of Black maternal health, maternal morbidity, and bereavement. As part of this project, faculty and community fellows have created the following publicly accessible educational module: Unequal Burdens: Black Maternal Mortality and Bereavement.