Current Events > Black women in the UK four times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Black women are still four times more likely than white women to die in pregnancy or childbirth in the UK, and women from Asian ethnic backgrounds face twice the risk, according to a new report.

The data shows a slight narrowing of the divide last years report found black women were five times more likely to die but experts say that is statistically insignificant and not a sign of progress.

The lead author of the MBRRACE-UK report, Prof Marian Knight, said: The drop to a fourfold difference should not be a reason to lessen our efforts at a time when addressing these inequalities among pregnant women and new mothers should be a priority.

The rate of deaths among white women has gone up by a tiny amount and the rate of black women has come down a little but neither of these are statistically significant changes because the overall rates are low.

Prof Maggie Rae, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said: This years coronavirus pandemic has brought this disparity even more starkly to the fore, and we must not lose sight of the actions that are required to address systemic biases that impact on the care we provide for ethnic minority women.

The latest figures on maternal deaths and morbidity cover the period between 2016 and 2018, showing 217 women died during or up to six weeks after pregnancy out of 2,235,159 women giving birth in the UK. A further 349 women died up to a year after pregnancy.

Maternal mortality is uncommon so while there is an unacceptable racial disparity, even for black women the rate is low, said Knight. But what is significant is the statistics are likely to be a marker of similar disparities in severe pregnancy complications and what we call near misses.

What needs to happen now is more comprehensive research looking at maternal morbidity. Only then can we start to monitor the variations in outcome between different groups living in different areas of the UK.

Black women remain four times more likely than white women to die in pregnancy or childbirth.

A report published in December by the joint committee on human rights highlighted the lack of an NHS target to end the disparity and urged the government to introduce one.

Tinuke Awe, co-founder of campaign group Fivexmore, supports such a target. She said: Urgent research is required to understand those statistics but also what is going on behind the data.

We know from hearing black womens stories that for every person who unfortunately dies there is a whole group of women behind them who are suffering from poorer outcomes. Yet currently those near misses arent recorded anywhere.

Almost all of those who died during or after pregnancy had multiple issues such as mental or physical health problems, were victims of domestic abuse, or were living in a deprived area. More than half of those who died were overweight or obese. Cardiac disease represents the largest single cause of indirect maternal deaths.

Also highlighted in the report was a twofold increase in the number of maternal deaths linked to epilepsy. Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (Sudep) is uncommon but it occurred almost twice as often among women pregnant during 2016-2018 than in the previous three years.

Knight said changes from 2018 onwards to the types of medication prescribed to manage a pregnant womens epilepsy may account for the rise.

Importantly, the report highlighted that preventive action is not just vital within maternity services. Public health actions are equally important.

Women living in the most deprived areas were three times more likely to die than those in more affluent areas. Social services were also involved in the lives of 20% of the women who died compared with 12% in 20122014, suggesting greater coordination is needed between social services and maternity care.

Kirsty Kitchen, head of policy at Birth Companions, said: While the number of deaths remains low, inequalities are widening. These figures relate to a period pre-Covid-19 and we know those inequalities will become even more profound as womens lives continue to be adversely impacted by the pandemic.
Interventions to address poverty, bad housing, domestic abuse and racism were vital, she said. While the ethnic disparities are shocking and stark we should be equally shocked by the disparities that are widening along the lines of deprivation and disadvantage.

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists said it would continue working to address inequality through the Race Equality Taskforce. Its president, Dr Edward Morris, also urged the government to commit to a target of a 50% reduction in maternal mortality for black, Asian and minority ethnic women over the next five years.

Full Article: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jan/15/black-women-in-the-uk-four-times-more-likely-to-die-in-pregnancy-or-childbirth


I'm sick of this pattern of Governmet's branding things as a "Task Force" and then acting like they've done something when they haven't.

Mass Effect 3 was making fun of this in 2012

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issue becomes glaringly obvious...

"lets pay someone a stupid amount of money to write a report pointing out the glaringly obvious problem and the brain dead simple solutions!"

millions spent...

report released 3 years later...

report ignored...

bureaucracy!

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All the doctors and nurses in the UK are racist

monkmith posted...

issue becomes glaringly obvious...

"lets pay someone a stupid amount of money to write a report pointing out the glaringly obvious problem and the brain dead simple solutions!"

millions spent...

report released 3 years later...

report ignored...

bureaucracy!

You think that's bad

As we speak the UK spent hundreds of millions of pounds to send out "30 boxes of food" to families to feed their kids.

Then the boxes have like 2 tins of beans, some and a banana in them



So the goverment spent like 6 per box, the pocketed 20+ a box for all their mates. While intentionally starving kids.

It's sickening

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UnfairRepresent posted...

As we speak the UK spent hundreds of millions of pounds to send out "30 boxes of food" to families to feed their kids.

More half truths. Yes the pictures below are correct. Yes is it disgusting. No it was not hundreds of millions of pounds.

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Crepes posted...

More half truths. Yes the pictures below are correct. Yes is it disgusting. No it was not hundreds of millions of pounds.

Then how much was it?

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Thats damn tragic.

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Peak white male privilege, not dying in childbirth

It's the same in the USA. Racism is a terrible blight on health care. But at least in the UK health care is free.

https://eu.lohud.com/in-depth/news/2020/09/08/as-black-woman-when-youre-pregnant-your-own-advocate/5442487002/

Black pregnant women experience institutional racism from the health care system. And doctors and medical professionals are both unconsciously biased and overtly racist.

And that, researchers say, contributes to racial disparities in mortality rates.

Black women are dying in childbirth 2 times more often than white women 37.1 vs 14.7 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to data released earlier this year by the National Center for Health Statistics.
Despite the fact that Black women make up about 13% of the population of American women, they die in numbers not far behind white women, who make up 60%. From 2006 to 2017, the most recent years analyzed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2,432 Black women died compared to 2,756 whites.

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UnfairRepresent posted...

You think that's bad

As we speak the UK spent hundreds of millions of pounds to send out "30 boxes of food" to families to feed their kids.

Then the boxes have like 2 tins of beans, some and a banana in them



So the goverment spent like 6 per box, the pocketed 20+ a box for all their mates. While intentionally starving kids.

It's sickening

WTF?

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UnfairRepresent posted...

Then how much was it?

Over 6m apparently, if your 6 figure is correct.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-1-million-food-boxes-delivered-to-those-most-at-risk-from-coronavirus

It's the typical outsourcing to companies who make a mint.

So....why are they more likely to die? I don't get it. All they said was it had a lot to do with their home lives. The article made it sound like something goes wrong at the hospitals.

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I thought they had universal healthcare? Or is that just Canada?

Beemo_Season12 posted...

I thought they had universal healthcare? Or is that just Canada?

We do have it. It was introduced in 1948.

I could only speculate as to the reasons for this. Probably bias from healthcare professionals (which could materialize in many ways), but I doubt it's just that. Maybe ignorance about specific medical issues black mothers-to-be-face. And poverty of course.