Black And Hispanic Women Suffer From A Higher Rate Of Maternal Morbidity

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : May 24, 2021

Racial discrimination is one of the major problems faced by minority communities not only in the United States of America but all over the world. Racism is nothing but being discriminated to a group of people who belong to a different gender or sexual orientation, race or ethnicity, and many other factors. The main communities that face these discriminations are the American black and Hispanic communities.

Black And Hispanic Women Suffer From A Higher Rate Of Maternal Morbidity

The United States of America has a long history of being conservative and has different opinions on people from different communities. Some of the white Americans, European Americans, particularly mentioned that they enjoyed the privilege in the matters of education, immigration, medical care, and many more places.

Black And Hispanic Women Suffer From A Higher Rate Of Maternal Morbidity

As per the reports, women from the majority of Black and Hispanic communities face a higher rate of severe birth complications compared to white women. The report by Blue Cross Blue Sheild Association mentioned that they looked into the data from 2020 and found that the women in the majority of the Black community had a 63% higher rate of maternal morbidities than other white women communities. And women in Hispanic communities have a higher 33% rate. The rate of severe maternal morbidities rate for all women by 9% between 2018 and 2020. But for the Hispanic women was the highest increase and it was by 19%.

The women over the age of 35 years had a higher maternal morbidity rate, while the women in the majority-black communities had a higher maternal morbidity rate under the age of 35 years when compared to the women over the age of 35 years in white communities. The CEO of the Blue Cross Blue Sheild Association mentioned that there is an urgent maternal health crisis in the country. It is unbelievable that people or women of different color face complications during childbirth when compared with white women, and the health disparities have to be confronted across the board to change the trajectory.

The Center for Disease Control and prevention also mentioned that maternal morbidities include unexpected labor and delivery that result in short-term or long-term health consequences. Severe morbidity rates have been increasing in recent years. The more recent data is from 2014. The Blue Cross Blue Sheild Association used the CDC’s severe maternal morbidity showed cardiac arrest, sepsis and shock. The reports also showed that the majority of the Black and the Hispanic communities suffered from higher morbidity rates.

The women in the Majority Balck communities were at the risk of twice of these morbidity rates along with high blood pressure. The researchers used the risk factors which was identified using the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative risk adjustment system. The reports also include a survey of 750 women who gave birth last year, and the research showed that sixty-two percent of Black women completed all the prenatal visits and about 82% of the white women completed prenatal visits, and seventy-one percent of Hispanic women completed prenatal visits.

Race and ethnicity data for the study was determined using the 2017 American Community Survey, and it was found that more than 50% of households identified as Black, Hispanic or White. The report comes out mentioning that the maternal health outcomes worsen for pregnant Americans. As per the reports of the CDC, the rate of maternal death increased by more 

Some of the policymakers, including the White House and on Capitol Hill, have made improvements for maternal health, particularly for Black women, aiming to improve maternal health priorities. A sweeping maternal health package was introduced this year and the first bill aimed at improving the maternal health outcomes in veterans passed the house floor this month.


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

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