Survival guide for women of color

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Disclaimer: This is a post about empirically proven disparities that WOC, particularly black women experience while giving birth- these are verifiable facts, easily backed with stats and research- if you are an individual who chooses to deny reality and wants to quibble about this VERY REAL PROBLEM, move along- nonsense responses denying this issue, or worse yet racism in medical care will NOT be tolerated

Hello all- after seeing yet more dismal stats about how much more likely WOC die during childbirth (yes, in hospitals under the care of RNs and docs or CNMs, not home births) I've been inspired to put together a list of things for women, their partners and families to be aware of-

I'll post what I have thus far, and was hoping to get more suggestions from y'all and eventually edit it down into a smaller, more layperson friendly read

*for a reference point, look at this story about Kira Johnson- this is a woman who was in great health, at Cedars-Sinai for a scheduled c-section, began to hemorrhage, and bled out over 10 hours while the staff waited on a CT scan????? what in the world?

NowThis Politics - Black Women Die from Pregnancy and Childbirth Complications At Alarming Rates | Facebook[0]=68.ARDWgw93pmwsjrHYBjGg_iqV3hGD41nUkYHjPRBfKpPmy3sVZAzyCDAIXF_uky1jddQ8IHXzPIYwFkEqtsjhtaUrY2PDOpv0YS8rAy7wTAgVIwCjhRQW3ILaHpZNS2ooWcYRzduPt-rjhMmwLlaKPUaOAgoWShaQtW5zdOZCJAyqYwcS4xEf6xdSJtqFpmIr0mzfEajuipl1yuwmaw6DkaH0OxK0KDS6ORtly_s7YMlJhJgXCVp6nkC3Nt0FZWb8eDA8OCIm3M3ooAG6qb_VpdHXjvFd6Ha1nneaop8sF51hlZ_SvCfwExbV-IUtOi_L-OiETwEETSbRqAQ95IuuunCUFns_6vE

Specializes in Tele, OB, public health.

Emergent:

No. Please stop beating this dead horse. If you had read any of the posted information, you would see many of these women died because they were ignored, whit has nothing to do with nutrition.

Schlepping this off on nutrition is tone deaf and ignores the racism at the heart of these issues

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Specializes in L&D.
On 12/2/2018 at 7:10 PM, Hoosier_RN said:

Thanks for the info, and for bringing this into our spotlight. I had been seeing a lot of headlines about maternal deaths, with no attributes specifically to WOC. I had read an article about Kira Johnson, it didn't mention race, but that is beside the point. Any pregnant woman should take this information to heart, because LIFE MATTERS, and every baby should be brought into this world as healthy as possible, with the healthiest mom possible. Thanks, dinah77, as a mom and a grandmother, I know about the birth of babies only from my personal view. As a nurse, I've never worked OB, L&D, etc, so other perspectives have never been presented to me. I appreciate the opportunity to learn. I know that racism and prejudice exist in this day and age, I just wish that healthcare providers were past that!

Sorry but I’ve not seen racism in my unit. Most of our population is black and many with multiple health issues. I work in Antepartum. I didn’t hear about Kiera but I’ll research.

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Specializes in L&D.
On 12/10/2018 at 12:34 AM, Emergent said:

I'm wondering if Hispanics are considered 'of color'? If so, are they considered shortchanged by the medical system?

Hispanics Have Highest Life Expectancy in U.S.

Yes of course they are!

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Specializes in Tele, OB, public health.
On 1/20/2019 at 2:42 PM, jodyangel said:

Sorry but I’ve not seen racism in my unit. Most of our population is black and many with multiple health issues. I work in Antepartum. I didn’t hear about Kiera but I’ll research.

I'm glad to hear you are open to researching it, but please acknowledge that anecdotal (I don't see it personally so it doesn't exist) is not evidence

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Specializes in L&D.
On 12/2/2018 at 7:01 PM, canoehead said:

Who is Kira?

Good question???

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On 12/2/2018 at 8:13 AM, NICU Guy said:

I am confused how this contributes to a higher death rate in WOC. These examples apply to all women in labor, not just WOC. Can you give examples of how they are treated differently?

I am not seeing the empirically proven disparities.

It contributes to a higher mortality rate of Black women because medical staff is notorious for not listening to them and believe they have higher pain tolerance .

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Specializes in NICU.

^^ very true- there is a bias not to believe black people's pain. There was nursing textbook that recently taken off the shelves in 2017 because of its racist assumptions about POC's pain. The "black" one was:

"Blacks often report higher pain intensity than other cultures."

they also had things like "Jews may be vocal and demanding of assistance."

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/23/nursing-textbook-pulled-over-stereotypes

This is institutionalized racism, literally in textbooks. For shame.

Anecdotal- but have you guys also heard about Serena Williams' experience giving birth? She had a history of blood clots and knew her personal symptoms of getting one. She had a c-section and developed a PE the next day. She told her nurse who didn't believe her and thought it was because of her pain medicine. An ultrasound revealed nothing and she insisted on a CT scan which showed the PE. If she wasn't such a well-known person, I wonder whether the medical team would have done a CT scan at all.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/10/health/serena-williams-birth-c-section-olympia-bn/index.html

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