Birthing While Black Congressional Hearing Amplifies Black Maternal Health Crisis
Actress Tatyana Ali testified in Congress on her traumatizing birthing experience, joining other witnesses who shared stories of childbirth trauma. Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage
Millions know actress Tatyana Ali for roles that have ranged from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Broadway.
Yet the Harvard graduate cherishes most her real-life roles as a wife and mother of two young sons. Last Thursday ahead of Mother’s Day, the activist testified before Congress about Black maternal health–and how the life or death issue impacted her family.
“When I asked my OB-GYN what positions I could be in during labor and delivery, he said that `I could hang from the lights if that made me happy’,” said Ali, who spoke via Zoom. “This being my first birth, the dismissal of my very earnest query into birthing techniques hurt. I felt silly. That should have been a warning.”
Below is Alston & Bird’s
Health Care Week in Review, which provides a synopsis of the latest news in healthcare regulations, notices, and guidance; federal legislation and congressional committee action; reports, studies, and analyses; and other health policy news.
Week in Review Highlight of the Week:
This week, HHS announced several efforts to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates in the U.S. Read more about these initiatives and other news below.
I. Regulations, Notices & Guidance
Event Notices
May 11-12, 2021: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a public meeting entitled,
Meeting of the Pediatric Oncology Subcommittee of the Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee. The general function of the subcommittee is to provide advice and recommendations to FDA on regulatory issues.
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WASHINGTON A House hearing on reducing maternal morbidity and mortality among Black mothers started off harmoniously, as would be expected, but later devolved into disagreement over root causes of the problem. Our nation is facing a maternal health crisis, said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, at the beginning of Thursday s hearing, which was entitled, Birthing While Black: Examining America s Black Maternal Health Crisis. Across the globe, our maternal mortality rate ranks the absolute worst among similar developed nations and 55th overall.
Deaths Unequally Distributed The danger of giving birth in the U.S. is not equally distributed, Maloney continued. The CDC estimates that Black women are more than three times as likely to die during or after childbirth as white women. Black Americans experience higher rates of life-threatening complications at every stage of childbirth, from pregnancy to
Mother’s Day in the United States is typically associated with spring, and new life.
But because of the climate crisis, Mother’s Day also heralds hotter summers with more and longer heat waves, worsening North Atlantic hurricane season, and terrifying wildfires in the months ahead. An increasingly important public health event – Heat Awareness Day – follows on May 31.
Climate impacts are expected to be more extreme again this year and threaten to worsen the maternal health crisis in the US. That crisis is marked by unjust inequities in maternal mortality, illness, and premature birth; with worse rates for Black, Indigenous, and other women of color than white women, and for women living in poverty compared to the better-off.
Black women are at higher risk for miscarriage, study finds By Tori B. Powell Study: Miscarriage rate higher in Black women
Black women have a higher risk of pregnancy loss compared to White women, according to a study published this week in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal. Researchers in the United Kingdom analyzed data from 4.6 million pregnancies in seven countries, and the analysis suggests the risk is 43% higher for Black women. It s something that hasn t been highlighted before and something that we need to understand more about, Siobhan Quenby, a professor of Obstetrics at the University of Warwick and co-author of the study, told CBSN.