Systemic racism affects maternity care for black women in England, say MPs | Health
Black women in England are always faced with poorer results in their maternity care because of systemic racism, in parallel with leadership and data collection failures, according to a group of deputies.
Through the United Kingdom, black women are more than twice as likely to die in childbirth compared to their white counterparts, while babies born of black mothers run an increased risk of mortinity.
A report of the health and social care committee revealed that these results in a disproportionate manner in maternity care for black women were due to a combination of factors, in particular systemic responsibility and leadership failures, the concerns of black women “not taken seriously” due to bias, stereotypes and racist hypotheses.
“Safe maternal care for black women depend on a workforce that listens, understands and respects their needs,” according to Paulette Hamilton, deputy for plowing for Birmingham Erdington and acting president of the committee. “Leadership must be effective, but it must also be responsible. This report proves that this is not, currently, the case. “
She added that the next government’s next NHS maternity care investigation should be a “turning point” for black women in particular. “Structural racism integrated into maternity services fails on black women several times. Recognition of this and the fight against racial disparities in maternal results must be one of the main objectives of the survey, “she added.
The Committee also found that, given these disparities, it was “indefensible” that the training of cultural skills was not compulsory for NHS staff who worked through maternity services. They urged the government, the Royal College of Midwives and the Council for Nursing and Midwives to make training compulsory for all the staff, and that training should be informed directly by the experience of black women.
The inadequate data collection was also cited as a factor for ethnic disparities between maternity care, the committee noting that a significant number of individual trustee of the NHS do not consistently record this information, and that this lack of robust data has led to a “blind to its failures” system. Consequently, the Committee also urged the government to accelerate the development of an indicator of maternal morbidity, which it has already committed to producing.
The report comes after the previous conclusions of the Applicoyer Five X Plus group, which noted that almost half of pregnant black women have raised concerns to health professionals during work, half saying that their concerns were not properly dealt with.
Tinuke Awe, a co-founder of Five X more, said that the Committee report had been welcomed and that there was an “urgent need to fight against systemic maternity care for black women.
AWE has added: “For too long, black women have been ignored in maternity care, and the recommendations of this report stress that the change is late. We believe that the time is the time to repair it for black women, repair it for all women. ”
Clare Livingstone, responsible for politicians and practice at the Royal College of Midwives, said black women being more at risk during pregnancy and childbirth were a “shame”.
“The recommendations of this report must be aged in emergency and everyone in maternity services must work together to combat these shocking disparities,” said Livingstone. “It should not be said that these inequalities exist in England today.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Social Care said: “Racism in any form is completely unacceptable and we are determined to reduce the shocking disparities that this report addresses.
“We are already taking measures to improve maternity care, including the launch of an anti-discrimination program, the training of thousands of other midwives and the introduction of new standards to combat the main causes of maternal mortality.”
