October is Nebraska Black Maternal Health Month

Every October, I Be Black Girl powers Black Maternal Health Month in Nebraska as an opportunity to intentionally deep dive into learnings and solutions that create positive experiences for Black mamas and people with the capacity for pregnancy.

Why?

Black mamas and parents deserve to enjoy their birth experience. Unfortunately the reality is…

Black women are 3-4X more likely to die during or after delivery than are white women.

Black women and birthing folks in the United States experience unacceptably poor maternal health outcomes, including disproportionately high rates of death and near death experiences related to pregnancy or childbirth.

The top leading causes of death for Black women when pregnant or giving birth are “other” heart conditions and blood clots, all preventable causes

Black women experience “weathering,” meaning our bodies experience physical harm due to exposure to chronic stress linked to socioeconomic inequities, discrimination and racism over the life span, making pregnancy riskier at an earlier age

Nebraska

A 12 week abortion ban enacted in 2023 now shifts access to reproductive healthcare though the quality of reproductive healthcare in our state has already been alarming.

Has shockingly high rates of overall maternal mortality - 28.2 compared to the national 20.4

Ranks second-highest in the US for maternity care deserts. Rural regions of the state accounted for roughly 40% of births from 2016-2018, yet 66 of the state’s 93 counties have no hospitals providing obstetric care, no birth centers, no OB/GYNs, and no certified nurse midwives; and since 2017, the state has lost six birthing units in rural hospitals.

In Douglas County, the most populated county in the state, the Black infant mortality rate is 12.7 compared to the white infant mortality rate at 4.2 (overall 5.5).