W4C Voices: The Minority Maternal Mortality Crisis Deserves More Investment and Your Attention
Women4Change understands the importance of amplifying voices that advocate for the lives and futures of Hoosier women, which is why we created the platform: W4C Voices
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We heard from Sanai Mavindidze about the maternal mortality crisis in Indiana and across the country and she believes more resources and research need to be devoted to understanding and addressing maternal mortality among minority mothers.
Here’s her story.
The Minority Maternal Mortality Crisis Deserves More Investment and Your Attention
April 17, 2024
Sanai Mavindidze, 2nd year Undergraduate Public Health student
Maternal mortality rates in the United States are at an all-time high.
However, minority, more specifically African American mothers, are dying at a 2-3 times higher rate than her white counterparts. In 2020, according to IU Public Policy Institute the maternal mortality ratio for Black Hoosier women was 208 per 100,000 live births, compared to 108 for white women and 71 for Latin women (Indiana University, 2022). As of 2022, Indiana has the third highest maternal mortality rate amongst all reporting states (IU, 2022).
House Bill 1125 was passed in 2023 and it requires that the Indiana Department of Health develop a program to award grants to certain community-based programs to reduce the prevalence of maternal mortality in Indiana. To address the depth of this problem, I think this bill to include additional language and provisions. Specifically, House Bill 1125 should state: “Requires that the Indiana Department of Health develop a program to award grants to certain community-based programs. Directing our efforts towards the Black community for additional research and data collection to understand why these rates are occurring at such a high volume. As well as sharing the data collected, across organizations with the hope to reduce the gap in racial maternal mortality rates, as well as the prevalence of maternal death in Indiana.”
These amendments to House Bill 1125 are imperative because there needs to be a specific description of what they intend to do to reduce the prevalence of maternal mortality in Indiana.
States and the federal government should direct more research and data collection toward maternal mortality among minority groups until the maternal death rates drastically decrease.
The importance of sharing the data collected is because organizations can see what interventions have worked in specific populations, what similarities and differences exist from area to area, and it will encourage a collective effort. Considering the depth of the problem, sharing the data is a good first step to creating a unified, statewide support program for health educators.
The World Health Organization reports that most maternal deaths are preventable and underscores how important it is for ALL births to be attended to by skilled professionals who will attentively and intentionally listen to their patients and their concerns (World Health Organization, 2023). Yale Medicine claims that about 84% of maternal deaths are preventable, “women with pregnancy related complications may not be aware of the early symptoms of their illness. And even if they do, some medical providers may miss or cause delay in diagnosis” (Katella, 2023).
Consider the number of lives that could be saved if we were able to share insights on the best practices and approaches for communicating with patients across professionals.
Help support this effort by signing this petition:
https://www.change.org/p/cdc-prevent-maternal-death-rates-of-black-women
Change.org has created a petition to get the public involved in preventing Black maternal death rates from increasing. They are more than half way to reaching their goal of supporters, by signing this petition YOU will have helped move this cause forward. Getting us closer to a seat on the agenda and assisting in essential change. Black maternal mortality is a national crisis, is an even more dire crisis in Indiana, and should be seen as such.
Do you have a story for W4C Voices that Indiana needs to know?
Contact Aimee West at aimee@women4changeindiana.org
Sources provided by Sanai Mavindidze
BACKGROUND MATERNAL MORTALITY IN INDIANA (2022)
https://policyinstitute.iu.edu/doc/maternal-mortality-brief.pdf
Maternal mortality. (n.d.). Www.who.int.
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/maternal-mortality
Maternal Mortality Is on the Rise: 8 Things To Know. (n.d.). Yale Medicine.
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/maternal-mortality-on-the-rise
Sign the Petition. (n.d.). Change.org. April 17, 2024,
https://www.change.org/p/cdc-prevent-maternal-death-rates-of-black-women