Del. pushes to aid black babies, women
Maternal, infant mortality rates three times higher nationwide
Black mothers are three times more likely to die than their white counterparts during or after childbirth, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention: a stark reality nationwide. Despite the harrowing trends that Black maternal health faces in the United States, Delaware is looking to fill the gap in the First State, from legislation to health care.
In 2021, the maternal mortality rate for non-Hispanic Black women was 69.9 deaths per 100,000 live births, 2.6 times the rate for non-Hispanic white women, according to the CDC.
Black maternal health activism focuses on much more than just birthing, however. Post-partum depression, care during pregnancy, breastfeeding, reproductive rights, infant care, insurance discrepancies and more are part of fair prenatal care.
The CDC reports that about 30% of Black, Hispanic and multiracial women reported mistreatment during their pregnancy and delivery.
“The tragedy is that most pregnancy-related deaths are preventable,” said Teresa Janevic, an associate professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s School of Public Health in an article by Ken Alltucker in USA Today. “And that means that this disparity is preventable, too.”
Like other states, Delaware faces Black maternal health issues, and has lawmakers and advocates looking to make the change.
Organizations like the Well Woman/Black Maternal Health Committee, part of the Delaware Healthy Mother & Infant Consortium, have worked toward legislation, support and more during pregnancy, and after.
Tiffany Chalk and Mona Liza Hamlin, chairs of the committee, have looked to spread awareness in the First State, speaking from their own experiences.
In an April 13 roundtable on Black maternal health hosted by U.S. Rep Lisa Blunt Rochester, Chalk discussed how she became passionate about advocacy work after she prematurely delivered her son, Jared, who died 28 days after birth due to complications of prematurity.
According to the Delaware Women’s Advancement and Advocacy, in Wilmington, the Black infant mortality rate is three times that of white infants in the state, just one of several statistics that show the gap.
“From that point on, I said I never want a Black woman to experience what I experienced,” Chalk said of her loss. “That was 20 years ago. ... We’re still seeing the same statistics, and the same racial disparities ...
Chalk in our local hospitals right here in Delaware.”
Women attending the roundtable pushed for legislation that would lead to federal abortion protection, spoke about the culture around Black pregnancy, and shared their own pregnancy and birth experiences.
Others who participated in the event hosted at Oath ‘84 included the congresswoman herself, who is running for U.S. Senate, as well as Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, and state Sen. Marie Pinkney.
“As a Black woman, as a mother, as a sister, and now as a grandmother, I’ve seen firsthand the difficulties Black women in particular face in this country when pregnant,” said Blunt Rochester during the event. “I’ve also seen stories in Delaware that have reverberated in our communities, in our homes and in our hospitals.”
She also briefly discussed her bill, the Moms Matter Act, which would offer support for maternal mental health conditions and substance abuse disorders.
State Sen. Pinkney emphasized factors Black pregnant women face that are different from their white counterparts, such as where they live and work. “All of these social determinants are added stressors that women have to deal with, [when they] are supposed to be able to celebrate the most magical moments of their life,” Pinkney said.
Pinkney has sponsored or co-sponsored a multitude of bills aimed at filling the gap, such as one that would change the state’s probation rules (S.B. 4), and a state bill that would expand Medicaid’s coverage of termination of pregnancy.
Attendees also discussed pushing toward legislation that would lead to federal abortion protection.
“Every state that we’ve had abortion on the ballot, abortion wins,” Timmaraju said. “We have 21 states with bandwidth restrictions, but we have more states than that in the United States that are protecting and expanding access.”
In the USA Today report, Linda Goler Blount, president of the nonprofit Black Women’s Health Imperative, reiterated the many factors that come to play in addressing this crucial public health issue.
“Black women, low-income women, don’t receive the standard of care even under the best of circumstances,” Blount said. “So you had this very unfortunate conflation of social, medical and health care delivery events that increased maternal mortality for all women and particularly for Black women and low-income women.”
In an interview with Delaware Online/The News Journal after the roundtable, Blunt Rochester also emphasized the importance of representation in governing bodies, stating that only three Black women have held U.S. Senate positions in the history of the United States. She hopes to be the next.
Pinkney