US Black families battle with higher maternal mortality rates: media

LOS ANGELES - Black families in the United States have long battled higher maternal mortality rates, and that demographic group has struggled to find advocates to address their specific birthing needs and concerns, according to US media.

The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, with Black women faring the worst: They are three times more likely to die of a pregnancy-related cause than White women, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

Giving birth in Washington, DC, compared with other parts of the United States, is particularly dangerous for Black people, said a report of The Washington Post.

In 2018, one analysis showed that about 41 people giving birth in Washington, DC, die for every 100,000 live births -- about twice the nationwide rate, according to the report.

Last year, a group established by the DC Council to study this problem found that 90 percent of those pregnancy-related deaths were of Black people, said the report.

"Everything was White-centered and White-focused, but we were the ones that were dying," Tracie Collins, CEO of the Atlanta-based National Black Doulas Association, was quoted as saying.

People able to find Black birth care providers often breathe a "sigh of relief," said Darshal Smith, a doula operating out of Prince George's County, Maryland.

Without an advocate in the birthing room, parents-to-be may be subjected to a lower standard of care based on misconceptions about Black bodies -- the assumption that Black people have high blood pressure, for example. Such assumptions may lead care providers to induce labor before they would with other patients, according to the report.