April 11-17 is Black Maternal Health Week, and local community groups are highlighting some startling statistics regarding implicit bias in prenatal and postpartum care. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that nationally, maternal mortality rates for Black non-Hispanic women were nearly 3.5 times the rate for white non-Hispanic women. In New York State, that gap is even wider.
“Black non-Hispanic women had a pregnancy related mortality ratio five times higher than white, non-Hispanic women,” LuAnne Brown, CEO of the Buffalo Prenatal-Perinatal Network told community members at an event.
That statistic comes from findings of the New York State Department of Health's Maternity Mortality Review Board, which also stated that 73 percent of pregnancy-related deaths were preventable, and that discrimination was a probable or definite circumstance surrounding 47 percent of pregnancy-related deaths in the state.
The BPPN organized a community conversation with health care professionals, community leaders and members of the public with one central goal: breaking the bias in Black maternal health. Segments of the Viddy Platinum Award-Winning project, Can You Hear Me? helped put faces to the stories of real women who faced racial disparities.
The United Way of Buffalo and Erie County hosted the event. CEO Trina Burruss says that it’s the community's responsibility to ensure the best maternal care for every woman regardless of race.
‘We need to be sure that as a community, we say it is our responsibility to make sure that these are not the outcomes in Buffalo and Erie County," she said.
In the Western New York region specifically, healthcare professionals point to poor social determinants of health as a contributor to poor maternal health outcomes — especially among Black and Hispanic women.
“I think housing is an issue. I think nutrition is an issue. I think transportation is an issue," Brown said.
One of the solutions most advocated for is building community coalitions. Pastor George Nicholas, who heads the Buffalo Center for Health Equity, says that collective advocacy and education, especially for those who have historically endured the worst outcomes, will lead to large scale change.
“Guess what happens when we all come together? We can transform these communities, and at the center of the work, at the center of it, must be black women,” Nicholas said.
