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New Jersey released a plan on Monday to address racial inequities in maternal and infant health, spearheaded by First Lady Tammy Snyder Murphy.
The plan first lays out those stark disparities, before listening off dozens of recommendations for how to fix them.
“A Black mother in New Jersey is seven times more likely than a white mother to die from maternity-related complications, and a Black baby is over three times more likely than a white baby to die before his or her first birthday,” it reads.
The Nurture NJ Maternal and Infant Health Strategic Plan contains 83 recommendations pulled from interviews with more than 100 stakeholders with the goal of reducing maternal mortality by 50% in five years, and eliminating any difference in outcomes by race. To that end, the plan tackles both the larger causes of disparate treatment – such as systemic racism and income inequality – while also pressing health care organizations to do more to br