Black Mamas

US BLACK MATERNAL MORTALITY RATE

My research contextualizes the racial disparity in the US Black maternal mortality rate by grounding itself in the role and orientation of physicians towards enslaved African mothers. I analyze how the development of stereotypes of Black women created during chattel slavery to justify the control and exploitation of their bodies for profit and power persist today in the collective social consciousness and manifests in maternal care malpractice. Namely, the implications of these tropes in the health care system, and pregnant Black mamas’ experiences with providers and navigating resources. Lastly, this analysis also identifies community led interventions that cultivate positive birth outcomes for Black mamas and babies.

This work originated as a course assignment in the Fall of 2020 and developed into a paper that will be submitted for consideration to publications as well as presentation at conferences. It has also inspired further research and art which I'm excited to be working on!

I hope with moving forward better data collection allows us to learn more about birth experiences of folks getting pregnant and giving birth beyond the binary.

Motivation

The US maternal mortality rate (MMR) is comparable to countries with fractional GDPs, and the bulk of the burden is carried by Black women. This racial disparity manifests across determinant factors for birth outcomes such as income, education, and health. However, for a number of misguided reasons the epidemic is blamed on mamas instead of the institutions and society that breeds this condition.

Intention

Analyze how the racial disparity in the MMR persist regardless of income, education, health, and other factors that are strong determinants in birth outcomes. To ground my analysis in the practices of reproductive care during in chattel slavery and narratives created about Black mamas, and thread this legacy to how Black mamas experience barriers navigating healthcare and resources to support their pregnancies. As well as outline a number of interventions that cultivate positive birth outcomes for Black mamas and babies at the community and institutional level.

Process

Currently I'm editing the paper in preparation to submit it for publication and presentation at conferences.

Outcomes

Writing this paper inspired me to create both an art project conduct further research.

Art Project

Overwhelmed by the harmful myths about Black mamas that continue to circulate through the collective consciousness and tangibly inhibit positive birth outcomes, I created a digital collage projecting positive images of Black mamas. I plan to create a series that portray honest images of Black parents and pregnancy that counter these myths.

Further Research

make it QUEER

The pregnancy experiences of Black folks thriving beyond the binary is developed in interventions that promote positive birth outcomes but is not highlighted in the historical grounding due to a lack of resources while conducting research. I hope to study and engage this experience further not only to call attention the unique violence and historical erasure, but to ignite imagination around what pregnancy and birth can look like when we are all free.

make it MATH

I'm also very curious about how Black birth outcomes compare for immigrants versus later generations. Much of the racial disparity is perpetuated because of bias and generational trauma. I hypothesize that ancestral wisdom for how to care for pregnant bodies in a cultural and linguistically relevant way, centered upon collecteive community care towards the mama is more typical among those generationally closer to arriving in the US. Although US values and structure of society disregards communal living and indigeneity, interventions that implement these principles promote positive outcomes. I plan to do a statistical analysis can articulate this relationship. Finally, I hope to analyze the MMR of indigenous mamas and history to inform the disparity in access to responsive culturally congruent care.

Thank You

Dr. Elise Murowchick for providing an engaging course to support this work and supporting the development of this project!

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