Health Disparities
"Black infants die before one year of life at more than twice the rate of white infants...There are also profound disparities in other birth outcomes. " (JMWH 2016) See also Figure 2
Pregnant and postpartum persons of black or African American descent are more than twice as likely to die as a result of childbirth than whites 26.5 vs. 10.0 per 100,000 (HP 2020). In New York City, maternal mortality for blacks is 12 times higher than for whites (Boyd et al., 2015).
Indigenous/American Indian/Alaska Native infants birthed in the US are nearly two times more likely to die in their first year of life than the US infants with the best outcomes.
(ASOTHO, 2012)
"Reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care should be a priority for all obstetrician–gynecologists and other women’s health care providers." Recommendations for practitioners (See ACOG Number: 649, 2015).
A Priority: Increasing Racial/Ethnic Diversity in Nursing to Reduce Health Disparities and Achieve Health Equity (Phillips & Malone, 2014)
A Resource List to Educate Yourself on Why Black Women and Babies are Dying in the USA
This site was designed as part of a Masters Project in Maternal Child Health Systems at
Bastyr University by Kristin Effland, LM, CPM
Spring 2017
If you are interested in more informatipn or being a part of growing this project into the future, Contact Us
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Equity Agenda Guideline
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Glossary of Terms & Acronyms
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Conceptual Model
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Quality Assessment Protocol
for selecting website resources -
Site Outline & Overview
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References
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Black Mamas Matter: A Toolkit for Advancing the Human Right to Safe and Respectful Maternal Health Care.
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Our Bodies, Our Lives, Our Voices: The State of Black Women & Reproductive Justice Policy Report 2017 (http://blackrj.org/)
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Battling Over Birth: Black Women & The Maternal Health Care Crisis in California (Oparah, Jones, Hudson, Oseguera and Arega, 2017) Donation requested for download
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Reproductive Injustice: Racial and Gender Discrimination in US Health Care (A Shadow Report for the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination) by:
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SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
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Catalyzing a Reproductive Health and Social Justice Movement (Verbiest, Malin, Drummonds, & Kotelchuck, 2016)
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Step Up and Lead for Equity: What Higher Education Can Do to Reverse Our Deepening Divides (AACU 2015)
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Foundations for Social Justice–Based Actions in Maternal/Infant Nursing (Clingerman & Fowles, 2010)
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Diversity in Midwifery Care: Working Toward Social Justice (Burton & Ariss, 2014)
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Social Justice and Birth by NACPM
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'Granny Midwives' of the South by Miriam Zoila Pérez, 2015
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Building a Movement to Birth a More Just and Loving World by the National Perinatal Task Force
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Community-Based Doulas and Midwives - Key to Addressing the U.S. Maternal Health Crisis
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"Even though they all had successfully become and practiced as midwives, the scars left after the educational process ran deep, leaving a thick defense and a commitment to future midwives." - Kennedy et al, 2006, p. 88
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"A lack of diversity can lead to tokenism of underrepresented students and being a part of an underrepresented group on a campus can produce negative social stigma and other “minority status” stressors that adversely affect student achievement." (Diversity in the Classroom, 2014, p.6-7)
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See also Preventing Microaggressions below
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The Cost of Balancing Academia and Racism by Adrienne Green, 2016
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"Minority students had a higher tendency to experience stress than their counterparts. Although universities allocate resources to recruit minority undergraduates and provide various types of support, many universities tend to be limited in the resources for handling and detecting stressors among college students." (Turner & Smith, 2015)
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Racial and Gender Discrimination in the Stress Process: Implications for African American Women's Health and Well-Being (Perry, Harp & Oser, 2013)
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Race-Related Stress and Sociocultural Orientation Among Latino Students During Their Transition Into a Predominately
White, Highly Selective Institution (Lopez, 2005)
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Understanding the Black College Student Experience: The Relationships Between Racial Identity, Social Support, General Campus, Academic, and Racial Climate, and GPA. (Hamilton, 2010)
“There must be purposeful action by every individual in the profession, as well as the collective voice of midwifery, to identify barriers to inclusiveness and to foster a culture of diversity through respect, recruitment, and mentoring.” - Kennedy et al, 2006, p. 85
SOURCE: UCLA’s office of Diversity & Faculty Development. (2014). Diversity in the Classroom. Retrieved from https://equity.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DiversityintheClassroom2014Web.pdf
SOURCE: Matthews TJ, MacDorman MF. Infant Mortality Statistics from the 2010 Period Linked Birth/Infant Death Data Set, National Vital Statistics Reports 62(8); Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, 2013 IN March of Dimes. (2015, Feb 27). Fact Sheet: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Birth Outcomes. Retrieved from http://www.marchofdimes.org/materials/March-of-Dimes-Racial-and-Ethnic-Disparities_feb-27-2015.pdf