Proposal Essay (1)

.docx

School

University of Texas, El Paso *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

2300

Subject

Medicine

Date

Dec 6, 2023

Type

docx

Pages

7

Uploaded by PrivateWhale61

Black Women Deserve Better: Maternal Mortality Starr-Aisa Hayes The University of Texas At El Paso WS 2300 CEL: Introduction to Women’s Studies Naomi Fertman April 27th, 2023
The problem my project addresses and contextualizes in my community is black women's maternal mortality rate and how it is significantly higher than any other race. Maternal mortality is “the death of a woman during pregnancy, at delivery or soon after delivery” (CDC 2022 ), which is a misfortune for her family and society overall because now the family must raise the child and that child will never know or truly be able to form a connection with their mother. If she had no family now, the child goes into foster care and is up for adoption, which may be a blessing to some but at the cost of a life that at most times \could have been saved. Maternal mortality affects black women the most, “currently, Indigenous and Black Women are dying at 2- 5 times the rate of White Women, Asian/Pacific Islander and Hispanic Women.” (Guttmacher Institute 2023) Maternal mortality goes against everything that the reproductive justice movement is fighting. Reproductive justice is a framework that includes not only a woman’s right not to have a child, but also the right to have children and to raise them with dignity in safe, healthy, and supportive environments” (Roberts, 2015). Black women aren’t getting the chance to raise their children due to maternal mortality, this is deadly to the black community and a bad look on the United States because “The United States has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality among high-income countries and wide disparities by race that have been documented since rates separated by race were first published in 1935.” (Guttmacher Institute 2023) I hope to raise awareness and shed light on racial disparities and racial discrimination that Black women face in an area that is supposed to be a safe place for them and to be cared for regardless of race. The "Black Maternal Health Week is recognized each year from April 11-17 to bring attention and action in improving Black maternal health. Everyone can play a role in working to prevent pregnancy-related deaths and improving maternal health outcomes.” (CDC
2023) These doctors took an oath that some don’t uphold because they’re racist; “Research on maternal and infant death disparities has increasingly pointed to structural racism in society at large as a stressor that harms African American women at both physiological and genetic levels.” (Owens & Fett 2019) It is important to get an understanding of what happens to Black women during and after their pregnancy at most of these hospitals in America which have been embedded since slavery; “Public health initiatives must acknowledge these historical legacies by addressing institutionalized racism and implicit bias in medicine while promoting programs that remedy socially embedded health disparities.” (Owens & Fett 2019) There is only one group that is majorly affected by Maternal Mortality and that is black women; as long as national data have been available, significant disparities in maternal mortality between White and Black mothers have been documented, the “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention figures from 2016 show that today non-Hispanic Black infant mortality is 2.3 times higher than mortality among non-Hispanic White babies; 11.4 deaths and 4.9 deaths, respectively” (Owens & Fett 2019) The black-white gap is exacerbated by the fact that black mothers are more likely than white mothers to give birth in standardized severe maternal morbidity hospitals with higher risk. The causes of maternal mortality are eclampsia, which are seizures that occur in pregnant women; preeclampsia, which is a serious condition that can develop after the 20th week of pregnancy or after the birth of a child; and postpartum cardiomyopathy, which is a rare form of heart failure. Black women also suffer from obstetric embolism, which is a rare but potentially fatal problem that arises when amniotic fluid enters the bloodstream of a pregnant woman just before, during, or immediately following childbirth. and obstetric hemorrhage, which refers to excessive bleeding in a parturient, “For non-Hispanic Black women, eclampsia, preeclampsia,
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
  • Access to all documents
  • Unlimited textbook solutions
  • 24/7 expert homework help