Illinois organization seeks to expand maternal health resources for women of color
A doctor uses a hand-held Doppler probe on a pregnant woman to measure the heartbeat of the fetus on Dec. 17, 2021, in Jackson, Miss. Rogelio V. Solis/AP, file
According to the Illinois Department of Public Health’s “Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Report,” released in 2018, Black women are six times as likely to die of a pregnancy-related condition as their White counterparts. An average of 73 women die within one year of pregnancy. Efforts are underway in Illinois to help combat this. One such effort is to have more doulas, midwives and other maternal health educators of the same background of Black or indigenous pregnant women, but while it is easier to find that maternal help in the Chicagoland area, it becomes much more difficult south of I-80.
To talk about these maternal health disparities and how to end them, The 21st was joined by the leader of one such maternal health organization and a health disparities researcher.
GUESTS:
Margarita Teran-Garcia
Assistant Dean and Program Leader of Integrated Health Disparities, University of Illinois Extension
Isis Rose
Co-Founder and Executive Director, BIPOC for Better Birth
Prepared for web by Owen Henderson
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