California Legislature Approves Bill To Reduce Maternal Mortality Rate For Black Women

Speaker 1: 00:00 According to some health rankings. California has the lowest maternal mortality rate in the country. Still Black Women in California continue to die in pregnancy related deaths at a rate three to four times higher than that of white women. One organization advocating for black women called a black women for wellness says the disparity cannot be explained by education, income, or even prenatal care. So they've worked a push Senate bill four 64, which requires implicit bias training for some medical professionals and is now headed to the governor's desk. Ran a grand berry, is the maternal and infant health program manager with black women for wellness. And she joins me now via Skype. Rana, welcome. Thanks for having me. First I want to talk about the disparity. A study show, women are three to four times more likely to die from a pregnancy related death than white women. Um, what's to blame for that disparity? Speaker 2: 00:55 Okay, Speaker 3: 00:55 so, um, there's many different, uh, reasons and there's, you know, folks were believing that, you know, has something to do with your socioeconomic status and lots of different things. But since we see this disparity the same across black women, even with advanced degrees, even with, well we um, have started to do more research and even the CDC has recognized that racism and the stress of structural racism and just being in black skin does cause a lot of what women are experiencing when it comes to birthing disparities. Speaker 1: 01:28 So what are black women experiencing during and after pregnancy? A that puts them at a higher risk for death. Speaker 2: 01:35 Okay. Speaker 3: 01:35 Absolutely. So, uh, there's things like, you know, just your environmental racism. Like we like to, uh, we have programs here where we do work around drilling. There's so many oil drilling sites that are right next to, you know, lower income neighborhoods. In one instance. You have women experiencing lots of discrimination in their jobs that caused a lot of those issues. You have women that end up having, um, some more chronic disease issue that is directly related to being in food deserts or not having access to fresh foods and vegetables often. So there's all these different things and it all leads back to a root of structural racism. Speaker 1: 02:14 And I know in your work you advocate for the wellness of black women. What are some of the experiences you're hearing from the women you work with? Speaker 2: 02:23 Oh, Speaker 3: 02:23 oh goodness. A lot of issues are actually in the prenatal process and in the, um, the birthing process. So that's why we came in with this bill that does a lot of different things. But the implicit bias portion is really going in and educating doctors, physicians, and providers about the way that they treat black women. We have so many focus groups and we consistently here, I haven't been listened to. Um, you know, I, I expressed that this was my issue. No one did anything until five hours later. And then, you know, I, I'm bleeding or I now I've had a miscarriage. So, um, it's, that's one of the main things we consistently hear that there's disrespect and disregard around the healthcare while women are pregnant. And that's one of the big things that we want to tackle with this bill. Speaker 1: 03:11 And I want to talk more about the bill. You know, how will this legislation, Senate bill four 64 help fix these problems? Speaker 3: 03:19 Well, um, first we are going to make it necessary and mandate that these providers have to do training. They have to learn about what may be explicit biases they have and what, what is implicit biases that they have. And we want to, a lot of times we encounter doctors who don't even know what the statistics are and they're not even aware of, you know, what type of extra care or even just, you know, dignified care that they need to provide. So that's the first thing and we think it's going to help preserve lives in that matter. Um, and then it's also going to help California collect some data around maternal mortality and severe morbidity. So we haven't looked a lot at that. We have a lot of data and research around infant mortality. And even though black women are dying at these just astronomical rates, we haven't really looked at how, why and where. So that's one of the things we're gonna, um, be looking at and hope that like a California death certificate, there's a format that we can use so we can start collecting some of that data and it can help us do better. We have a lot of research, like I said, around the racism and the stresses and we need to get to the root cause by collecting some more in depth data. Speaker 1: 04:29 Okay. And you mentioned implicit bias training. Do you have any idea of what that training will consist of? Speaker 3: 04:37 We don't have a lot of the specifics at this time, um, just because it's going to be a, uh, very a collective effort. Um, but we have a lot of folks around the country who have been doing this work. We at black women for wellness too. A lot of this work, some of our partners at Adrien for racial justice have done a lot of this implicit bias training. So it's out there and we just want to make sure that it's something that will be effective for all stakeholders involved. Speaker 1: 05:03 And you know, do you think that this legislation will fix the problem or is it just a first step based on what, you know? Speaker 3: 05:10 I wouldn't call it a first step, um, because there have been first steps, but I would call it a major step, a major piece of the puzzle. We're going to have to do a lot of things, but policy is a very important in sort of attacking the structure, the structural racism that we're thinking. Um, and that's one of the big things. And then of course with the research piece around gathering information about the maternal mortality and morbidity. So it is a big piece. Uh, it won't be the only piece and it's not the first piece. We're very proud about what's happening and we know that this will make a difference. Speaker 1: 05:44 It's a, it's a major step you say, and it's expected to be signed by Governor Gavin Newsom beyond Senate bill four 64. What would you like to see happen next? Speaker 4: 05:53 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 05:54 well, well, I would like to see, um, our entire healthcare system really become more aware of the way they treat pain patients, period. Um, and that the whole narrative around black women in our birthing experience changes. Um, we know a lot of times when black women are pregnant, it's not celebrated. You know, if a woman has a bunch of children, it's why should I have in another one or she's having a baby too late. There's, there's always these things around the narrative of black women having children and just the narrative of black women period. So black women deserve more respect. We deserve dignity in our everyday lives. And if we can start doing that, then of course, that dignity rolls over into the birthing experience. I've been speaking with Rana Granbury maternal and infant health program manager with black women for wellness. Brianna, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Have a great day. Speaker 5: 06:47 Uh.