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Does anyone have any idea why? The much higher mortality rate for black women especially stands out. People have often remarked on this as evidence of racism, b

Does anyone have any idea why? The much higher mortality rate for black women especially stands out. People have often remarked on this as evidence of racism, but does anyone know the actual mechanism here? Are black women less fit to survive a risky procedure in the first place? Are facilities actually treating black women worse? Do black women primarily only have access to inferior facilities? (if so, do women of other races also have worse outcomes at said facilities?) The article refutes increasing maternal age, which would have been my next guess. I don't have answers, just questions and guesses. If anyone's got anything definitive, I'd love if they weighed in.

okeuro49 2y ago
Black women are more likely to suffer from comorbities, such as obesity: > 56.9 percent for black women. It stands at 36.2 percent for white women [1] Obesity increases the risk of maternal mortality. [1] https://www.self.com/story/black-women-health-conditions https://www.self.com/story/black-women-health-conditions
Barrin92 2y ago
there's a few obvious things, poverty and worse economic conditions and thus worse medical care, higher rates of obesity, as the article points out cardiovascular diseases are generally considered to be a driver of mortality rates. As for racism, a known observation is that black women in particular are treated as "tough" and tend to not have symptoms taken as seriously, as far as I'm aware that even holds when the doctors are black. It's a bad and very old stereotype.
sdfgtr 2y ago
[flagged]
tantalor 2y ago
My guess would be the drop in teen pregnancy has increased the average age of the mother, which I assume increases the mortality.
ZeroGravitas 2y ago
American parental leave policies are a bit of an outlier when compared with other OECD: https://qz.com/1275938/22-american-mothers-on-what-its-like-to-go-back-to-work-after-maternity-leave https://qz.com/1275938/22-american-mothers-on-what-its-like-... If rich mothers give up work after giving birth and poor mothers return quickly to work, that could have an impact. And in America, rich/poor and white/black trends are big confounders.

okeuro49 2y ago

Black women are more likely to suffer from comorbities, such as obesity: > 56.9 percent for black women. It stands at 36.2 percent for white women [1] Obesity increases the risk of maternal mortality. [1] https://www.self.com/story/black-women-health-conditions https://www.self.com/story/black-women-health-conditions

Barrin92 2y ago

there's a few obvious things, poverty and worse economic conditions and thus worse medical care, higher rates of obesity, as the article points out cardiovascular diseases are generally considered to be a driver of mortality rates. As for racism, a known observation is that black women in particular are treated as "tough" and tend to not have symptoms taken as seriously, as far as I'm aware that even holds when the doctors are black. It's a bad and very old stereotype.

sdfgtr 2y ago

[flagged]

tantalor 2y ago

My guess would be the drop in teen pregnancy has increased the average age of the mother, which I assume increases the mortality.

ZeroGravitas 2y ago

American parental leave policies are a bit of an outlier when compared with other OECD: https://qz.com/1275938/22-american-mothers-on-what-its-like-to-go-back-to-work-after-maternity-leave https://qz.com/1275938/22-american-mothers-on-what-its-like-... If rich mothers give up work after giving birth and poor mothers return quickly to work, that could have an impact. And in America, rich/poor and white/black trends are big confounders.