04/14/2026
Black women in the United States are 3 to 4 times more likely to experience pregnancy-related mortality compared to to their White counterparts. They also face disproportionately higher rates of severe maternal morbidity across the prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods.
These disparities persist across income and education levels, underscoring that this is not solely an issue of access, but also of structural inequities within maternal healthcare delivery, clinical decision-making, and patient experience.
Maternal health outcomes are shaped not only by what care is available, but by how care is provided—how symptoms are assessed, how concerns are prioritized, and how clinical bias is addressed or left unexamined.
Improving Black maternal health requires sustained commitment to:
• equitable, timely, and respectful clinical care
• consistent validation of patient-reported symptoms
• stronger integration of doulas and community-based perinatal support
• accountability in addressing preventable harm within systems of care
As maternal health advocates and doulas, our responsibility is to support continuity of care, strengthen patient advocacy, and advance systems that treat Black women’s health with the urgency and precision it warrants.
Maternal health equity is not optional. It is a clinical and ethical imperative.