This Mother’s Day — save dying black mothers by trusting black women

BY MARCELA HOWELL via http://thehill.com

Black women are dying. And it’s because our doctors aren’t listening to us. Black women are facing a deadly health crisis, as they and their newborns are the most likely in the United States to die from pregnancy complications. This Mother’s Day, it’s time to really examine what is causing the black maternal mortality epidemic — and why medical professionals must learn to trust black women to stop it.

Last month, a New York Times cover story set out to answer this question: Why are black mothers and babies in a life-or-death crisis? Maternal mortality disproportionately burdens black women. Many die within just a year after delivering their babies. Black women are up to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes and more than twice as likely to experience severe maternal morbidity compared to white women.

There are a multitude of factors that contribute to this.

Lack of access to quality health care and racism exacerbate the general physical and emotional toil that comes to any woman who has gone through childbirth. Additionally, there is a shocking shortage of representation in the medical field. The lack of black health care …

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