dina weinstein
The third annual conference held in early October by the Virginia Commonwealth University Office of Health Equity and the Center for Humanities Research’s Health and Humanities Lab discusses how to bring about change at the local and national level for Black birthing people. became the focus.
The history and health symposium, “Improving Health Outcomes: Health Disparities and Black Births,” highlights research and patient experiences and highlights the power of health care providers and community organizations to impact the care of pregnant women and their families. I did.
“When we talk about Black maternal health, we’re talking about Black women and Black birthers dying at three times the rate. And that’s independent of socioeconomic factors. It has nothing to do with patient wealth. We look at that and say, ‘What’s the cause?'” said VCU, one of the conference organizers and a speaker on the policy and clinical practice panel. said Dr. Tashima Lambert Giles, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Health.
Lambert-Giles said research shows this disparity is a result of bias and systemic racism in healthcare.
“When you start talking about systemic racism, it seems like such a scary subject and people say, ‘Oh, I’m not a racist, so don’t do anything that will make this worse. But our purpose here at the symposium is to show how systemic racism spills over into systemic racism. We don’t even realize that we’re part of the result of, and we’re perpetuating it,” Lambert-Giles said.
The term “Black birther” was used at this year’s symposium, which recognized that many people who have given birth may not identify as women or mothers, even though they have the ability to have a baby. This is because the person approved it. This term also includes the entire family.
“When we talk about Black patients, we want to be as inclusive as possible, not necessarily just include women. It also involves the public,” Lambert-Giles said.
The symposium was co-sponsored by numerous VCU departments, including the School of Public Health, Women’s Health Research Institute, and Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as community partner Birth in Color.
Cheryl Garland, executive director of the Office of Health Equity and head of health impact at VCU Health, said the symposium will help universities and health systems advance health equity, a goal of VCU Health’s Quest 2028 strategic plan. He said it was an opportunity to support joint efforts. and ensuring everyone has a fair and just opportunity to be as healthy as possible.
“To do that, we need to reduce these disparities as much as possible and ensure we close the gap in health outcomes,” Garland said. “This is a multifactorial issue. There’s history involved.”
Garland said that history includes individual perceptions of care for women of color, social issues, and mistrust among many in the Black community when it comes to interacting with health care providers.
“To address these problems and disparities, we must better understand what those problems are and draw conclusions about how to bring different sectors together to solve them. ” she added.
Symposium attendees also heard from new mothers Chiara Bonner-Lawrence and Sherita Aisha Hollingsworth about their experiences with high-risk pregnancies and discussions about reproductive justice and birth equity at VCU Health. I did.
Keynote speaker Dr. Monica McLemore, professor and director of the Manning-Price-Splatlen Center for Anti-Racism and Equity at the University of Washington, will elaborate on how health care professionals can address these areas in their institutions and more broadly. did. Stages such as dialogue with legislators. Several state and federal leaders in maternal health also contributed to these discussions, including Dr. Vanessa Walker Harris, Director of Family Health Services at the Virginia Department of Health, and Virginia Representative Jennifer McClellan.
Partnerships between community-based health organizations and hospitals were also highlighted as a path to improving maternal health outcomes from a policy and legal perspective. This includes research. Chris Cynn, director of the VCU Health Humanities Lab, said researchers working closely with local health care providers and experts will help strengthen and advance local priorities. For example, the Health Humanities Lab is currently collaborating with Birth in Color, a doula collective featured at the symposium, on a project focused on Black childbirth health.
“This project highlights the many different biases in the health care system as well as recent changes at VCU Health to ensure everything comes from an equity lens and promote (comprehensive) care for birth doulas. “We’re doing it,” Kenda Sutton said. Elle, Founder and Executive Director of Birth in Color.
Birth in Color is one of several doula groups that VCU Health has worked with over the past 20 years. Doulas, who are trained and certified professionals who provide non-medical pregnancy support, are considered valuable care team members who reduce barriers to care and advocate for clients’ needs.
And that is the main goal of these communities and research collaborations: to remove barriers and positively impact improved birth outcomes. Lambert Giles said she hoped to speak at the symposium about how clinicians and health professionals can play a role in changing these disparities.
“Our goal is to help each person in our community discover where they fit in during this crisis and how they can make a positive impact,” said Lambert Giles. That’s what I do,” he said.
