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Black women will take center stage at what is believed to be the UK's first maternal health conference of its kind. Sandra Igwe said the gathering of doctors, service providers and mothers is the first to specifically focus on racial health disparities experienced by black women. Research has shown that black women are almost four times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than white women.
The organizer, Ms Igwe, who founded The Motherhood Group in 2016 after the traumatic birth of her first daughter, said she decided to hold the conference after being "the token black woman" who has spoken to so many people in the past.
This is a conference dedicated solely to the black maternal health experience where we connect the community, stakeholders, professionals, government
She declared that if des personnes de tous horizons devaient y assister, les orateurs de l'événement à Londres lundi ne seront que ceux issus d'une origine ethnique noire ou minoritaire "juste pour que nous puissions réellement faire entendre clairement nos voix de notre point of view".
She told the PA news agency: 'This is a conference dedicated solely to the black maternal health experience where we are building a bridge between the community, stakeholders, professionals and government.
"When I've been to conferences that are looking to address health inequities, you typically don't see mothers, pregnant women from our communities there."
Ms Igwe co-chaired the Birthrights Inquiry, a year-long survey of maternity care in the UK which found that Black, Asian and mixed women experience "systemic racism".
The report, published in May last year, said the starting point of the inquiry "was that systemic racism exists in the UK and in public services" and aimed to understand how this manifests itself in health care. maternity.
He said: "This report reveals the stories behind the statistics and shows that it is racism, not broken bodies, that is driving many of the inequalities in motherhood outcomes and experiences."
Common themes that emerged from the survey included lack of physical and psychological safety, people being ignored and incredulous, racism by caregivers, dehumanization, and lack of choice, consent, and coercion.
The conference also comes after MBRRACE-UK's 2022 annual report on maternal deaths and morbidity concluded that there was a more than three-fold difference in maternal mortality rates among black women compared to white women.
The report says that black women are 3.7 times more likely to die than white women, which is equivalent to 34 women per 100,000 births.
Speakers at Monday's conference are expected to include Labor MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy, while England's chief midwife Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent sent a video message that will be broadcast.
Ms Igwe told PA: “Black women are disproportionately negatively affected during pregnancy and the postnatal period. We are the least likely to have pain relief.
“Why do we report that we are the least likely to feel that we have been treated with kindness, care and respect? Why are we more likely to have complications and die as a result of our pregnancy? Why are we more likely to suffer from postpartum depression but less likely to have access to aftercare or treatment?
"There are so many stats out there, so why don't we spend a full conference day addressing them, just scratching the surface of some of the stats?"
He added that he hoped there would be more conferences in the future to "keep the conversation going."
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