User:YoMomma314/Black maternal mortality in the United States

Lead
Black maternal mortality in the United States refers to the death of women, specifically those who identify as Black or African American, during or after child delivery. In general, maternal death can be due to a myriad of factors, such as how the nature of the pregnancy or the delivery itself, but is not associated with unintentional or secondary causes. In the United States, around 700 women die from pregnancy-related illnesses or complications per year. There have been significant differences between the maternal mortality of white women versus Black women throughout history. In the U.S., the CDC reported that Black women experience maternal mortality two to three times higher than that of white women. The estimated national maternal mortality rate in the United States is about 17 per 100,000 live births––but it is about 43 per 100,000 live births for Black women. Furthermore, data from the CDC Pregnancy Surveillance Study shows that these higher rates of Black maternal mortality are due to higher fatality rates, not a higher number of cases. Since the usual causes of maternal mortality are conditions that occur or are exacerbated during pregnancy, most instances of maternal mortality are preventable deaths.

Article body
The historical context of institutionalized racism in the United States has had the effect of black people having to deal with medical and scientific racism, making the black community less likely to trust medical institutions and professionals, due to previous exploitation and abuse. Institutionalized racism is defined as policies and practices that exist across an entire society or organization and result in and support a continued unfair advantage for some people and unfair or harmful treatment of others based on race. For many years, African Americans in medicine and healthcare have faced racial injustices. Understanding what factors contribute to the racial disparity in maternal health outcomes is critical because it can illuminate where and how to address such a complex issue and focus the scope of public health prevention programs. Other obstacles such as lack of providers accepting public insurance such as Medicaid and transportation requirements to get to prenatal appointments affect black women more than white women in the United States.

Medical
The new study also found that these disparities were concentrated in a few causes of death. Postpartum cardiomyopathy (heart failure) and the blood pressure disorders preeclampsia and eclampsia were the leading causes of maternal death in Black women, with mortality rates five times higher than in white women. Pregnant and postpartum Black women were also more than twice as likely as white women to die from hemorrhage or embolism (blood vessel blockage).