Black female physicians are not OK, but it is our collective duty to do something about it. It is our collective duty to go against the tide. It is time to take a stand and institute change that we need to initiate ourselves.
The idea that having a baby could be dangerous seems out of the 19th century. But I know firsthand this women’s health crisis is very modern and preventable.
My work as a Black OB-GYN tempered my joy as I prepared to give birth
By Joy Cooper May 9, 2021Reprints
Adobe
Expectant mothers tend to spend time fine-tuning their baby registries and decorating their nurseries. I did some of that, but also spent time getting my blood pressure checked and drafting a will with an estate lawyer.
As a Black woman, I embody the high risk of dying during or soon after giving birth. As a Black OB-GYN, I know that Black women in the U.S. are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women.
Medical Racism Was Meant to Hurt Black Women And It Does
What is a lived experience for many Black women is only being talked about by the mainstream in recent weeks. Decades of catalogued data and research shows that the medical industry willfully withholds lifesaving information and treatments from Black women at nearly every engagement throughout their lives. I use the term “willfully” to describe this phenomenon because there is nothing preventing medical professionals from doing their jobs by providing this information.
Despite much research around the medical community’s negligence toward Black women, few viable solutions have coalesced. For instance, since at least 2008, TheBody has been reporting about the consistently disproportionate effect that HIV has on Black women. To no avail, it seems; we are still writing about the same issues that afflicted Black women back then, as if they were brand new today.