Cecilia Cunningham-dePedro

Feb. 22nd, 2021- first draft

All OBGYN Doctors Should Be Required to  Complete Anti Bias Training

Simone Landrum, a Black woman from New Orleans, was eager to give birth to her third child, a girl. Early on in her pregnancy she felt different from her previous ones. When she asked her doctor what to do about her sickness he simply recommended tylenol.  Her doctor continued to brush her off. When she thought her water broke months later, it was actually blood. At the hospital, nobody told her what was going on until it was too late. Her baby had died inside of her. She experienced a traumatic intrapartum death.

Simone’s story is a tragedy belonging to a bigger pattern of pregnant women in the U.S.  that disproportionately affects BLack women . Black women are not listened to when expressing pain and many infant deaths result. Black women are three to four times more likely to die than white women in childbirth in the U.S.. This is a scary statistic. Medical racism is really a matter of life and death for many expectant mothers. Maternal mortality in the U.S. is already ranked 37/37 worst out of every developed country in the world. Many of these premature deaths can be linked to implicit bias among doctors and medical professionals. Recent survey’s have stated that Black and Hispanic women were three times more likely to experience discrimination in the healthcare system due to language, race or culture. Women are not believed when they say they are in pain or they feel something is wrong, and finding quality care hospitals for these expectant mothers is hard based on location, transportation, and money.

We should not lose lives due to racism.  One important solution is that medical professionals should have anti-racist and anti bias training. Having all obstetrician doctors go through training where they can help break down biases and treat all women equally would significantly impact lives. In addition, places that offer doula’s are often extremely helpful in advocating for women, especially dealing with difficult doctors.  Alison Jacobson of First Candle, a nonprofit that supports mothers through their first year parenting the maternal health in the United States is the “secret killer.” She explains that it isn’t a priority both financially and vocally.  We need to help them feel seen and heard. We can also help share stories like Simone’s, and hold doctors accountable for ignoring women. Lastly, we can continue to advertise and push for mandatory anti bias training.

Bibliography:

“Maternal Mortality in the United States.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Feb. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternal_mortality_in_the_United_States.

Villarosa, Linda. “Why America's Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Apr. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/04/11/magazine/black-mothers-babies-death-maternal-mortality.html.

Gale. Gale In Context, Opposing Viewpoints , 2018, go.gale.com/ps/retrieve.do?resultListType=RELATED_DOCUMENT&searchType=ts&userGroupName=nysl_me_lrs_eihs&inPS=true&contentSegment=&prodId=OVIC&docId=GALE|HERBJH679673980&it=r.