Black mothers are seeking out Black OB/GYNs to prevent prejudiced healthcare. Because of this, networks have been set up to help Black women who need reproductive or prenatal care get matched with Black doctors. But because the community of Black doctors is smaller than that of white doctors, it is not always easy to accommodate the requests being made.
Adrienne Hibbert is one of those people who helps to coordinate matching Black women with a Black OB/GYN with her website, Black Doctors of South Florida.
According to NPR, Hibbert came up with the idea for the website after she had an "unwelcoming" experience with her OB/GYN 15 years ago when she was pregnant with her son.
The doctor was white and only had pictures of newborn babies and mothers who were white in the office. There were no Black women and their babies, leaving Hibbert feeling like her background was not being understood.
"I want someone who understands my background. I want someone who understands the foods that I eat. I want someone who understands my upbringing and things that my grandma used to tell me," Hibbert told Kaiser Health News.
And with the distrust that the Black community has for healthcare professionals after years of dealing with "racism, discrimination and unconscious bias," according to News-Medical.net, it is no wonder that many choose to look for a provider that they can relate to.
Black pregnant women in the United States have up to a three times higher rate of dying during pregnancy than those of white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Further still, for those who are over 30, the morbidity rate is up to five times higher than that of white women.
And according to the publication, most of the deaths were preventable. But because of "racial and ethnic disparities," Black women continue to be at higher risk for pregnancy complications than most other races.
According to NPR, while there have been some improvements in the healthcare system in some parts of the United States, many Black women still face clinicians being "dismissive, condescending, or impatient" when it comes to their reproductive care. Therefore, there is an automatic distrust that is formed between doctor and patient.
However, medical schools in the United States are working to overhaul their curriculum to include anti-racism training. Classes are being taught to first-year students that deal with racism in the healthcare system. They are also taught how to speak with people of different cultures than their own.
This is a far cry from the overtly racist diagnoses medical students were taught to give Black women decades ago.
According to Kaiser Health Network, if a Black woman came into her OB/GYNs office and complained of abdominal pain, she was automatically diagnosed with an STD as it was taught that Black women were more promiscuous than white women. On the other hand, if a white woman came in with the same complaint, she was diagnosed with endometriosis.
The hope is that with the new generation of medical students being taught in wake of the racial disparities being brought to light in the last year, all patients, regardless of race, will feel comfortable with their OB/GYNs when they are in one of the most vulnerable stages of their lives. And as a result of this, lives can be saved that are needlessly being lost as a result of bringing a new life into the world.
Source: Kaiser Health Network, NPR, News-Medical.net, Centers for Disease