Racism and Sexism Underlie Higher Maternal Death Rates for Black Women, U.N. Says

Medical school curricula, for example, say that black women’s nerve endings are “insensitive” and need less anesthesia, and that black women’s blood clots faster than white women’s, which delays treatment of dangerous bleeding, according to the report. It contains the false claim that . Also, illustrations in childbirth textbooks depict the pelvic anatomy of European women, which may lead to unnecessary interventions if non-white diversity is deemed “abnormal or high-risk”. It also turned out that

“Whether in São Paulo, Bogotá or New York, when a black woman dies during childbirth, it is often attributed to her lifestyle and personal failures. She was prone to certain medical conditions when making life decisions, and the world moves on,” Dr. Kanem said.

The new report “clearly denies it,” she said.

Background: Maternal mortality is increasing.

The overall maternal mortality rate of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in Latin America, North America and the Caribbean increased by about 15 percent between 2016 and 2020, with officials’ estimates of possible factors including race. Interest is growing. There are more than 200 million people of African descent in the Americas. 1 in 4 in Latin America and the Caribbean and 1 in 7 in the United States and Canada.

Among countries that publish maternal mortality rates by race, the United States has the lowest overall mortality rate but the widest racial disparities. Black women in the United States are three times more likely than white women to die during or shortly after childbirth. These problems persist across income and education levels, as college-educated black women are still 1.6 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women who have not completed high school.

What’s Next: The United Nations Call Medical schools, health care providers and governments take action.

UN officials have called on medical schools to reconsider curricula and strengthen policies on denial of treatment and patient abuse in hospitals. Healthcare teams should also consider innovative ways to help black women overcome structural barriers to adequate antenatal care, such as lack of access to reliable transportation and insurance. officials said there is. The agency has proposed partnerships with various black traditional healers and midwives to overcome long-standing reservations.

The UN project also identified a serious lack of monitoring data, which likely hampered public awareness of the problem, the report said. The report encouraged countries to strengthen their data collection efforts. Without a transparent examination of the problem, the report said, it would be nearly impossible to design interventions to remedy the problem.