Literary Review on Maternal Deaths
Research Papers:
- *Aziz, Aleha, et al. “5: Maternal Outcomes by Race during Postpartum Readmissions.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, vol. 220, no. 1, 2019, doi:10.1016/j.ajog.2018.11.006.
Notes:
- Race my be a risk factor
- Ages 15-54 were readmitted
- Black women were more likely to be readmitted postpartum
- Also suffered from complication such as pulmonary edema/acute heart failure
- Leonard, Stephanie A., et al. “Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity Prevalence and Trends.” Annals of Epidemiology, 2019, doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2019.02.007.
Notes:
- Show that there is a racial discrepancy but tend not to mention which race is being targeted
- *Spence, Naomi J., and Isaac W. Eberstein. “Age at First Birth, Parity, and Post-Reproductive Mortality among White and Black Women in the US, 1982–2002.” Social Science & Medicine, vol. 68, no. 9, 2009, pp. 1625–1632., doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.02.018.
Notes:
- Show the MMR between black and white women
- *Somer, Sarah J. Holdt, et al. “Epidemiology of Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality.” Seminars in Perinatology, vol. 41, no. 5, 2017, pp. 258–265., doi:10.1053/j.semperi.2017.04.001.
Notes:
- Show the racial and ethical difference
- “They found that most quality indicators had the best performance in Hispanic-serving hospitals, with black-serving hospitals having the poorest performance of all hospitals”
- *Gadson, Alexis, et al. “Exploring the Social Determinants of Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Prenatal Care Utilization and Maternal Outcome.” Seminars in Perinatology, vol. 41, no. 5, 2017, pp. 308–317., doi:10.1053/j.semperi.2017.04.008.
Notes:
- Shows how black women and dying at a faster rate than other races
Attallah Innis 04/03/19
Prof. Groves
The Trend of How Black Women Are a Target During Pregnancy
There’s is a disparity in the Maternal Mortality Rate between black women and any other race in North America. The authors of the research articles have a clear pattern of showing the difference in these women’s pre and post care. These patterns include black women being re-admitted into hospital after giving birth, the way the authors compare black females treatment to other race, and the poor treatment of black women in hospitals. Even though over time US technology has improved drastically from the 1900s to now there is still a gap between the care of black women from other races. Black women are at more of a risk than any other race when they decide to have a child. This is an issue in america because the rate for black women are 73% higher than white women when it comes to post readmission care (Aziz 2019). People need to start coming up with ways to help these women survive throughout their whole pregnancy and there post pregnancy care. This is an alarming issue because these rates do not apply to any other race. Whether it is the obstetrician who neglects the African American patients, or the policies that does not benefit the patients, the articles do not all concur with a cause of the maternal mortality gap.
Other articles state that the issue is not really soling based on race but that age has a big impact on the maternal morbidity rates. Even though black women have higher MMR rates, the article state that white women have higher rates in certain cases (Spence 2009). As state in the article “We find early childbearing to be associated with higher mortality among whites, while later childbearing is associated with higher mortality among blacks” (Spence 2009). I wonder if the fact that the paper was written ten years ago has anything to do with the findings that they came across. This article breaks the pattern of showing the factors to be obstetrics negligence, racial/ethnic disparities, and certain health complication for women of color.
A huge trend in the articles state that there is a difference between the way health care is provide for black women versus other races. They tend to mention that the these women face health complications but the statement that the articles fail to bring to light is what people are doing about the complications. The pattern shows that it is mention but no solution follows the observation. The injustice is mention as stated “Racial/ethnic health disparities are complex and reflect multiple levels of inequities—from patient characteristics to health care policies” (Leonard 2019). The articles mention policies a lot in the their conclusions and how they tend to in act a change, but if that the case why are black women rates still so high. I was searching in the articles for a section that would highlight solutions that showed very sound results over a long period of time. The articles have very poor way of showing the change and that it is long lasting change rather than a quick fix.
The racial disparity that has to do with the in hospital care in a pattern that is very well demista. Black women do not receive the same care as white women, and that is very well highlighted in multiple articles. The author succeed by giving very real factors that pertain to the MMR as stated “They found that most quality indicators had the best performance in Hispanic-serving hospitals, with black-serving hospitals having the poorest performance of all hospitals” ( Somer 2017). The hospitals that tend to services more black patients have the worst results, and that effects the MMR. Nothing is being done to fix this problem, and it is something as simple as maybe more fund, better qualified doctors, and/or easier access. All of these options and more and very heavily talked about but the rates are still failing to decline.
One of the first reports about racial disparities in obstetrics began in 1946 in Alabama, and they talked about the attempt to resolving the issue (Somer 2017). Now almost 73 years later we are still facing these issues and black females rates of maternal mortality are the highest of every ethnicity. This show that scientist knew about the issue and even wrote about it, but yet did not come up with viable results to fixing the problem. Most of the articles that I uncovered discuss the problem as an epidemic but they do not have any concrete results as to how to solve to matter. The topic is very well talked about but the actions are not present and are not sufficient enough because the rates are still the highest for black women. They have created ways to try to lower the rates by creating policies “Such policies have been successful in the past to decrease disparities,68 and with continued work, we can strive toward true obstetrical health equity”(Somer 2017). The idea that they are still trying to devise more resolutions is promising, because the fact that black women are dying more every day due to pregnancy is a disturbing fact.
