The United States is long overdue in addressing the devastating racial maternal health gap. or higher-degree options for mothers, potentially including free or low-cost daycare. Housing authorities can help lower-income women find better living arrangements city planners can increase access to healthy food options in underserved communities and educators and school administrators can provide flexible G.E.D. Solving racial disparities in maternal health outcomes is the responsibility not only of people who work in health care. Black women face implicit biases that result in worse treatment and must endure other manifestations of racism, such as residential segregation at the neighborhood level. This suggests that other causes are at play. While the vulnerability index demonstrates the range of problems facing lawmakers, it does not fully explain the racial disparities. Decision-makers there should focus on a different set of solutions, such as expanding access to nutrition programs like WIC and SNAP, and increasing access to midwives, doulas and family planning services. In Georgetown County, local leaders could focus on non-communicable diseases and increasing screenings for sexually transmitted infections, providing low-cost transportation options to help women get to medical appointments, or offering more high-quality, affordable housing where pregnant women don’t have to worry about black mold growing in their bedrooms.īut in Webb County, risks are driven by things like English proficiency, whether a woman has a high school diploma, whether she lives in poverty or food insecurity, access to OB-GYNs and midwives, and access to abortion clinics. We also need much more targeted local action, in the form of a specific bundle of solutions tailored to the issues each community faces, because the reasons for maternal risk can vary from county to county.Ĭonsider two counties where pregnancies are especially risky: Georgetown County, S.C., and Webb County, Texas. ![]() These broad federal policies can’t fix the problem on their own, though. This includes general stress levels, mental illness such as depression, access to mental health care and use of substances like nicotine and illicit drugs. Mental health and substance abuse play an important role, in addition to the factors described above. And they face fewer socioeconomic barriers: They are more likely to have access to educational opportunities, financial resources and healthy food options, and are less likely to face language barriers.īut there are a few exceptions - in Wisconsin, for example, the state with the single highest risk gap between Black and white women. They are also more likely to be in good physical health, with access to treatment and prevention strategies for sexually transmitted infections and non-communicable diseases. White women are more likely to live in good physical environments: communities with less pollution, less violent crime and better access to high-quality housing and transportation options. ![]() In almost all states, three types of factors play an outsize role. What’s contributing to the large gap between white and Black women? How at risk are women in your county, and why? Search for your county to find out. The data reveals that a woman’s chance of a healthy pregnancy varies greatly depending on where she lives, based on factors such as whether she has a high school diploma, her exposure to poverty, her access to OB-GYNs and midwives, and her access to abortion clinics. The Maternal Vulnerability Index uses an array of maternal health and community data - six categories in total - giving a more comprehensive picture of what’s driving risk for poor maternal health outcomes in counties across America. Solving this worsening problem requires looking not just at the quality of care a woman receives but the entire environment around her - from her access to health care to the availability of food in her community. Based on 2019 data, they are also 2.5 times as likely to die during childbirth, when controlling for their age, education and income levels.Ĭompared with its peers’, the United States’ trajectory in maternal health has been shameful. Black women are 1.6 times as likely as white women to live under these unfavorable conditions. ![]() ![]() The gap between white and Black women is also concerning.
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