Black and Asian women have been facing devastating maternity disparities for years.
Black women especially have been subject to dire realities, including being around five times more likely to die in childbirth.
In 2020, a report by MBRACE found that figure improved moderately to be four times more likely. Women from Asian ethnic backgrounds face a two-fold risk, and women living in the most deprived areas of the UK are almost three times more likely to die than those in the most affluent areas.
Black women are 40% more likely to miscarry too. Reasons can include not having their concerns listened to, and unconscious biases from health practitioners about Black women being able to endure a higher threshold of pain, or Asian women exaggerating their claims.
And now, a screening tool to reduce the risk of pregnancy loss has been introduced.
The app calculates a woman’s individual risk of problems during pregnancy and has had some proven success. In trials of 20,000 pregnant people, death rates among ethnic minority groups who had used the app were three times lower than normal. Experts hope this tool can help fight against the disproportionate rates of maternity loss among racialised patients.
St George’s Hospital in London has already began using the tool, with three other maternity wards signing up in England. In the next two years, it could be rolled out to 20 centres.
The move comes after a taskforce was set up to look into disparities in maternal healthcare.
The Maternity Disparities Taskforce said it will meet every two months and keep a close eye on the progress of wards.
They aim to focus on improving personalised care and support plans, looking at at how societal issues affect maternal health, increase education and awareness among patients, improve access to maternity care for all women, and work on targeted support for extra vulnerable people.
The taskforce hopes to empower women to make evidence-supported decisions about their healthcare.
Patient safety and primary care minister Maria Caulfield said: “For too long disparities have persisted which mean women living in deprived areas or from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to get the care they need and, worse, lose their child.
“We must do better to understand and address the causes of this. The Maternity Disparities Taskforce will help level-up maternity care across the country, bringing together a wide range of experts to deliver real and ambitious change so we can improve care for all women - and I will be monitoring progress closely.
“As a nurse, I know how incredibly challenging the last two years have been and would like to thank all our dedicated maternity staff for their hard work and commitment throughout the pandemic.”
The taskforce comes after the relentless campaigning from groups such as FiveXMore, who urged the government to look at the high risks of death among Black women.
The #FiveXMore campaign asks members of the public to continue showing their support by writing letters to their local MPs to urge the Department of Health to give a revised response that addresses the concerns of their petitions to improve healthcare for Black women (and also remove harmful encompassing terms such as BAME).
Atinuke Awe, one of the founders of FiveXMore, tells HuffPost UK they appreciate the taskforce. “We welcome the new task force and think it is a step in the right direction,” she says. “We want to ensure the dial continues to move and this remains at the forefront as an issue that needs to be addressed urgently. We hope there will be tangible outcomes and results from the task force.”
Not-for-profit Southall Black Sisters also welcome this taskforce, but hope meaningful changes come from it. Interim director Rahila Gupta tells HuffPost: “We welcome the setting up of a taskforce to tackle disparities in maternal healthcare as long as it is not being used to kick the issue into the long grass. Too often, we have seen institutions set up an inquiry or a taskforce as a way of appearing to deal with the issue at hand.
“In all the 40 years plus of our existence, we have seen a depressingly familiar pattern in the way that institutional racism and sexism intersect to create a culture of disbelief in which black and minoritised women’s experiences go unheard – whether it is in healthcare or immigration or housing – in fact, in any interaction with the state leading to blatantly discriminatory outcomes.”
Chief midwifery officer Prof Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, who will co-chair the taskforce, added: “The NHS’s ambition is to be the safest place in the world to be pregnant, give birth and transition into parenthood – all women who use our maternity services should receive the best care possible.”
Let’s hope real changes come from it.