black maternal health week
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Thanks to Black Women, There's More Political Interest in Fixing Black Maternal Care Than Ever Before
Racial disparities in maternal care have been an issue for decades—and for decades, many politicians were content with ignoring the issue or made decisions that actively exacerbated inequality. But in recent years, there has been a sea change nationwide as more elected officials at every level of government have committed themselves to addressing black maternal…
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The Blacker the Sugaberry: Tika Sumpter and Thai Randolph's New Platform Savors the Sweetness of Black Motherhood
In a single season of playing altruistic attorney Alicia Johnson on ABC’s Mixed-ish, Tika Sumpter has quickly joined the ranks of television’s black moms—a role that followed star turns in The Haves and Have Nots, opposite Tiffany Haddish in Nobody’s Fool, and her endearing portrayal of a pre-White House (and pre-marriage, Malia, and Sasha) iteration…
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Having a Baby While Black: NATAL Is the Podcast Pregnant Black Parents Have Been Waiting For
It’s a question you normally wouldn’t ask a stranger, but ever since starting a podcast about black people and pregnancy, Martina Abrahams Ilunga and Gabrielle Horton have fielded it constantly: Do they plan on having kids? Horton and Ilunga are the executive producers and hosts of a new docuseries, NATAL, which focuses on the entirety…
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During a Global Health Pandemic, It's More Important Than Ever to Protect Black Mothers
Despite its status as a “developed” nation, about 700 women will die each year from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth in the U.S.—more than any of its peers. Of that number, a disproportionately high number are black women—from 2007 to 2016, black mothers died at a rate of 3.2 times that of white mothers,…
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Kamala Harris Reintroduces Bill Addressing the Black Maternal Healthcare Crisis
U.S. Senator Kamala Harris reintroduced the Maternal Care Access and Reducing Emergencies (Maternal CARE) Act on Wednesday, her 2018 bill that seeks to address the ongoing black maternal health crisis. “Black mothers across the country are facing a health crisis that is driven in part by implicit bias in our health care system. We must…
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Now That We Know There’s a Maternal Mortality Crisis, How Can We Help Fix It?
If you are outraged by the maternal health crisis—and you should be—where black women are dying disproportionately from preventable childbirth-related causes and mistreatment, here’s what you can do: Get Involved. I caught up with Elizabeth Dawes Gay, co-director of the Black Mama’s Matter Alliance (BMMA) this week, and she was clear: “There is something that…
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Those Left Behind: Charles Johnson Wants to Support Families Reeling After Black Women Die in Childbirth
Because Kira Johnson was so amazing (she spoke five languages, skydived, raced cars), she has been the face of what many are now coming to see as a crisis in black maternal health. Kira Johnson put a face on what activists have known for years—that black women’s rates of death during or up to a…
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Fox’s The Resident Partners With Activist to Shine Light on America’s Maternal Mortality Crisis
“Lea Davies wasn’t a priority.” So said Dr. Devon Pravesh (Manish Dayal) on Monday night’s episode of The Resident, a fast-moving, gripping procedural drama on Fox starring The Good Wife’s Matt Czuchry, Malcolm Jamal Warner as Dr. AJ Austin, and Shaunette Renée Wilson as Dr. Mina Okafor. Monday’s episode, “If Not Now, When?” is dedicated…
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Black Maternal Health: When the Village Itself May Be Too Toxic
The recent intense media focus on high rates of maternal mortality in the U.S.—especially for African-American women—has been a mixed blessing. It has raised much-needed awareness about the rising rates of maternal deaths and disability happening during pregnancy, birth and postpartum. Yet those startling statistics have added more stress and burden on women who absorb…