Black women working to improve maternal and child health for Black people took stock of recent successes and new obstacles to reducing pregnancy-related mortality at an event in Durham this week.
The discussion took place at a roundtable hosted by the Biden-Harris campaign in commemoration of Black Maternal and Child Health Week. The event focused on the systemic forces that cause Black women to die from pregnancy-related causes at three times the rate of white women, and on policies to keep more Black women alive.
The 2018 and 2019 Maternal Mortality Investigation Report on North Carolina deaths found that more than 85% of deaths were preventable and that discrimination was the primary likely cause in nearly 70% of deaths. Prejudice and discrimination was defined broadly to include not just race and ethnicity, but also weight, geography, drug use, incarceration history, and other factors. The report was released in February.
One development highlighted as a success at the roundtable was extending postpartum medical care from two months to one year for people who qualify for Medicaid because they are pregnant. The state extended postpartum care to 12 months in 2022. States were authorized to extend postpartum care under Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
Two months of insurance coverage was considered too little for health care providers to address patients’ postpartum depression and heart problems. The disease, which affects the heart’s ability to pump blood, is the leading cause of death between six weeks and a year after giving birth. 1 in 4 maternal deaths. Black and Native American women are at higher risk.
Maya Jackson, founder and executive director of MAAME, a community health organization in Durham that supports childbirth, said women should seek ongoing care for high blood pressure, diabetes or other health problems that develop or are discovered after the first postpartum checkup. He said he had not received it. color.
“In many cases, people didn’t have the insurance to know what was going on,” Jackson said.
Roundtable participants criticized North Carolina’s abortion regulations enacted last year. Participants said the new law was reducing patients’ access to treatment and harming their health. The Republican-led Legislature enacted the law last year over a veto from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The law prohibits abortions after 12 weeks, except in cases of rape, incest, the mother’s health, or life-threatening fetal abnormalities.
National survey of obstetricians and gynecologists conducted by KFF Last year’s survey found that 64% believed the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade made pregnancy-related deaths worse, 70% said it worsened racial and ethnic inequalities, and 55% believed that It turns out that some believe it has become difficult to attract new obstetricians and gynecologists to the field. .
The Associated Press reported Friday that staff at Parson Memorial Hospital in Roxboro said: A pregnant woman complaining of abdominal pain was refused an ultrasound examination.. The woman gave birth in a car on the way to another hospital. The baby died. According to the Associated Press, emergency rooms in states with abortion bans or pregnancy restrictions are refusing to admit pregnant women.
Jackson said gynecologists are leaving the state and maternal health deserts are growing. People drive hours to urban areas to give birth or have an abortion.
Imminent threats include challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in medical schools;
U.S. Rep. Greg Murphy, a Greenville urologist, introduced a bill last month that would:Federal restrictions on medical schools that force certain beliefs on students or faculty, discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity, or establish offices of diversity, equity, and inclusion or functional equivalents. “Defund it,” he said at a press conference. Guidance on race-related health issues will continue to be allowed, he said.
“Folks, this is a medical school. This is not an art school or an English school or a medical school,” Murphy said at a press conference.
“I was taught to care for all patients, regardless of their race, ability to pay, religion, or creed. It taught me about consciousness.”
Murphy gained widespread notoriety in 2020 when he tweeted that then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, who is black and of Southeast Asian descent, was chosen “because of the color and race of her skin.”he Post deleted After the North Carolina Democratic Party denounced it. He told the TV station that the tweet was supposed to be about “color and gender.”
The School of Medicine has implemented cultural competency education to prepare students to treat patients of different races, religions, and ethnicities.
In a 2016 study, medical students and residents Half of the respondents were found to have false beliefs about the biological differences between blacks and whites. Those who espoused those false beliefs believed that black people felt less pain than white people. This led them to recommend inaccurate treatments.
Women who participated in a roundtable this week exchanged stories about inaccurate medical diagnoses.
Nimasina Burns, deputy chair of the Durham County Board, said she sought medical attention because she felt lightheaded. She looked at her online medical records and found that she had low iron in her blood and that her blood iron levels had been declining for years.
“No one had ever seen it before,” she said. After an unsatisfactory consultation with her doctor, she found another doctor who told her she needed an immediate blood transfusion.
Joy Spencer, executive director of Equity Before Birth, said attacks on DEI are traumatic and ignorant.
A 2020 study found that black infant mortality rates dropped sharply. When there were black doctors. Black infants in the United States are more than twice as likely as white infants to die before their first birthday.
“Literally, being culturally competent saves our lives,” Spencer says. “When we support those who are most vulnerable and have the least access to resources, we improve outcomes for everyone.”