It’s Black Maternal Health Week, and a Michigan-based group is striving to bring attention to the risks Black women face when giving birth.
Danielle Atkinson, the executive director of the public policy-focused group Mothering Justice, pointed to federal data that show Black women are 3-4 times more likely than their white counterparts to die of childbirth-related complications — a disparity that persists even when factoring in things like education and income level.
“It really speaks to the barriers, the economic barriers, the racial issues in our healthcare system and society, and how they have an effect on the lives of our people who are birthing,” Atkinson said.
Atkinson said that Michigan has made some major strides in recent years with policies that benefit mothers and babies. Those include things like expanding the RX Kids program that gives cash payments to new and expectant mothers, and implementing a law that requires employers to provide paid sick leave.
But Atkinson noted that deeper issues, like medical racism and struggles to access health care, remain stubborn and persistent problems for Black moms in particular.
“Unless we realize that we are all in this society, and have racist tendencies and then address them, we're going to continue to see the same thing happen when we are not listening to Black women,” she said. “Their pain is not recognized at the same level as white women's pain. So there's a lot of work to be done.”
Atkinson said the group will also highlight risks that pregnant people continue to face, including restrictions on abortion and other reproductive health care. In addition, she said, they’ll honor birth workers and women who have died as a result of pregnancy and childbirth—including Janell Green Smith, a 31-year-old nurse-midwife from South Carolina who died after experiencing post-birth complications with her first child.
“It is the martyrs of the maternal health crisis that we are honoring,” Atkinson said. “We are thanking them, and we are remembering them to recommit ourselves to the duty to make sure this never happens again, that one more life is not taken due to preventable situations.”
