Georgia's maternal mortality rate is especially alarming for black women, who have a rate of 66.6 per 100,000 live births in the Peach State (compared to 43.2 for white … 2017. This finding supports the hypothesis that black women in America face social inequities and chronic stressors unparalleled in other geographical societies, as racial genetic predispositions do not explain variances in maternal and infantile health. The data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows that, for every 100,000 births in the United States in 2018, more than 17 women died during pregnancy or in the weeks following childbirth. While African-American women represent 13 percent of the self-identified female population in the United States, they account for approximately 35 to 40 percent of the MMR. National Vital Statistics Reports 69(2). A meta-data analysis of analgesic (pain-reducing) treatments found that, on average and across various settings, black patients were 22 percent less likely to be prescribed pain medication relative to their white, . The U.S. maternal mortality rate, meanwhile, hovers around that of Serbia, Oman, and Hungary. One NPR survey examined this relationship through a series of questions relating to personal encounters with healthcare discrimination and patients’ resulting comfortability with hospital visitations. Required fields are marked *. A ProPublica article described the healthcare inequities that arise when social prejudices turn to discrimination: “In the more than 200 stories of African-American mothers that ProPublica and NPR have collected over the past year, the feeling of being devalued and disrespected by medical providers was a constant theme. When most Americans think of professional tennis player Serena Williams, they associate her with strength, agility, and championship. “In the more than 200 stories of African-American mothers that ProPublica and NPR have collected over the past year, the feeling of being devalued and disrespected by medical providers was a constant theme. Having a partner who was black, regardless of maternal race, was also associated with an increased rate of mistreatment, the authors found. A meta-data analysis of analgesic (pain-reducing) treatments found that, on average and across various settings, black patients were 22 percent less likely to be prescribed pain medication relative to their white counterparts. Further, such experiences are racially incongruent with those of non-Latina white Americans and partially account for unequal health outcomes pertaining to maternal mortality. Start typing to see results or hit ESC to close, Mind Control Madness with Toxoplasma gondii. While the data is disturbing, it probably doesn't sound particularly new. But there are some steps you can take to ensure a healthy pregnancy, including: CIA. Maternal mortality is broadly defined as death due to the occurrence of “pregnancy complications, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy, or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiologic effects of pregnancy within a one-year timespan post-partum.” Each year, nearly 700 women die before, during, or shortly after delivery. Infant Mortality Rate. Death in pregnancy and childbirth is rare. During 2015-2017 (average), the infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) in Kentucky was highest for black infants (10.3), followed by whites (6.4), Hispanics (5.9) and Asian/Pacific Islanders (3.6). Meanwhile, nearly … The last person you'd expect to die in childbirth. This threefold increase in MMR for African-American women is present despite the study’s control of “gestational age at delivery, maternal age, income, hypertension, and receipt of prenatal care.” The analysis therefore concluded a persisting association between maternal mortality and black racial identity. The infant mortality rate for black infants decreased from 14.3 to 11.6 per 1,000 births from 2005 to 2012, then plateaued and then increased from 11.4 to 11.7 per 1,000 births from 2014 to 2015. Thank you for the article, Your email address will not be published. Contrastingly, the birth weight in black immigrant mothers, who did not spend the majority of their lives in the U.S., was approximately equivalent to that of white. This discrepancy is largely rooted in misconstrued implicit biases surrounding the pain durability of black patients. Black infants were three times a… Undated. Black moms across the US are three and a half times more likely to die in childbirth than white Americans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, limited healthcare access, late diagnoses, and “failures by doctors or nurses” are primary sources of this drastic disproportion. While cardiomyopathy, pulmonary embolisms, and hemorrhages are the primary medical causes of mortality, the underlying sources of this racial disparity in MMR may not be as pathophysiological as we think. Despite her athletic success, as a black woman in America, Williams is one of millions predisposed to maternal health complications. It's partly why the overall rate of pregnancy-related deaths has climbed over the past two decades, making the maternal mortality rate in the United States the worst in any industrialized country, according to a 2016 analysis published in the journal The Lancet. 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