Black Maternal Health Week 2022

Black Maternal Health Week is April 11 – 17. It was founded by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance to deepen the national conversation about Black maternal health.

Black women’s risk of maternal mortality has remained higher than white women’s risk for the past six decades.

Follow us on Facebook at @InnovationsFamilyWellnessINC for giveaways all week as we increase awareness around Black maternal health complications in Oklahoma. #BlackMaternalHealthWeek #BMHW22

LEARN MORE

Sistersong
Black Mama’s Matter
Native Alliance Against Violence
NATAL
Forward Together
URGE
National Birth Equity Collaborative
Black Mamas Matter Alliance

VIDEOS

FusionTV’s Death by Delivery documentary
Kira’s Story documentary

ABOUT BLACK MATERNAL HEALTH WEEK

The month of April is recognized in the United States as National Minority Health Month – a month-long initiative to advance health equity across the country on behalf of all racial and ethnic minorities. Here at Innovations Family Wellness, we hope to spread awareness of the importance of making changes to our healthcare system in effort to lower the Black maternal mortality rates in Oklahoma.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black women experience pregnancy-related deaths at 3-4 times the rate of white women. In Oklahoma, the Black maternal mortality rate is higher than that of the nation.

THE FACTS:

Black women’s maternal mortality has remained higher than white women’s risk for the past six decades. Maternal mortality is defined by the World Health Organization as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy, irrespective of the duration and site of the pregnancy, from any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy or its management but not from accidental or incidental causes.”

Black women are also more likely than white women to experience complications that are pregnancy and/or birth-related. In Oklahoma, black women account for 10% of the births statewide but make up over 22% of all maternal deaths. (Oklahoma State Department of Health).
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black women experience pregnancy-related deaths at 3-4 times the rate of white women. A growing body of evidence indicates that stress from racism and racial discrimination influences maternal mortality and morbidity among Black women, regardless of their socio-economic, education or health status.
Despite advances in medical technology and increased spending on health care, maternal mortality has increased for all women in the U.S. Approximately 700 women die each year during pregnancy or delivery-related complications. (This is the equivalent of four 737 planes crashing.) Often these deaths are preventable.

Join the Movement

Below are resources for Black providers in the Tulsa Metro. As of now, Tulsa does not have a licensed Black midwife. There is a disparity when it comes to Black providers in the Tulsa Metro and even statewide. According to the CDC, “Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women. Multiple factors contribute to these disparities, such as variation in quality healthcare, underlying chronic conditions, structural racism, and implicit bias. Social determinants of health prevent many people from racial and ethnic minority groups from having fair opportunities for economic, physical, and emotional health.”

In addition, the Tulsa Equality Indicators state the following: “The infant mortality rate, often used as an indicator of the overall health of a community, exhibits intense and persistent racial disparity. Infant mortality continues to devastate African American communities at significantly higher levels than other populations across the nation, even when socioeconomic status and environmental characteristics are held constant. Many researchers believe this relentless disparity is the result of both generational trauma associated with historic racial discrimination and present-day racism in general and specifically in the healthcare system.”

Here at Innovations Family Wellness, we are looking to close this gap by training Black providers in effort to reduce Black maternal mortality rates as well as other women of color.