State doesn’t slack, but must up its game to help black mothers, babies

It is a startling fact and a grim reality: black women are 243 percent more likely than their counterparts to die from pregnancy-related complications. That is just one of the troubling statistics associated with black women and their maternal health care.

Here in Connecticut, after a complication-free delivery, black women are twice as likely to be readmitted to a hospital within 30 days, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, which drew from statistics maintained by the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

Another problematic statistic is that between 2013 and 2015, nearly 13 percent of black children were born prematurely.

None of these are new statistics — and black women being on the peripheral of health care access is nothing new.

But the health of mothers and babies is front and center nationwide after a disturbing report was recently released about the ills in American maternity wards, where a mother giving birth is about three times as likely to die as a mother in Britain and Canada.

That is bad news — and doesn’t say much for maternity wards in in the United States.

In the U.S., severe complications from giving birth has been rising faster than the rate of women who died, which increased by more than 25 percent between 2000 and 2014, while those in other developed countries declined, according to a study published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The Centers for Disease Control reported that the rate of women nearly dying almost tripled between 1993 and 2014.

Health officials are looking at new ways to close the gap for black women by getting all the players involved.

Psychiatric researchers, community activists, medical doctors and progressive health centers are re-examining the root causes of the gap and coming up with new solutions.

New Haven Healthy Start, a community-based program, has been working for 30 years to identify and eliminate racial disparities in birth outcomes. The organization has examined several factors as possible culprits in the racial divide, including poverty, health insurance, and access to prenatal care.

Kenn Harris, president of the board of directors of the National Healthy Start Association and project director at NHHS, said racism and discriminatory practices based on race had been the focus of the examinations. He said the organization offers a program where women, regardless of their race, feel truly supported throughout their pregnancy.

Another program making a difference is The New Haven MotherS Partnership, founded in 2011 by Yale associate professor of psychiatry Megan Smith. Its objective is to improve maternal mental health among lowincome women through a community-driven approach.

Since its inception, the program has reached more than 500 low-income mothers and pregnant women from New Haven, about 70 percent of whom are women of color.

So necessary steps are being taken — but more is needed — much more to reverse the trend for expectant mothers.

Connecticut was recently named the best place to raise children by care.com. And U.S. News & World Report puts the state fourth in its “Best States” health care rankings.

So, the state isn’t slacking but it must up its game to do more to help black mothers and their babies.

In the year 2018, no mother should give birth and not be around to see the child grow up due to inefficiencies in the health care system.