Half of black women in UK who raise concerns during labour did not receive suitable help

https://www.cuh.nhs.uk/news/childbirth-pain-relief-study-reveals-inequalities-for-bame-mothers/

• For vaginal births, Bangladeshi-British (by 24%), Pakistani-British (by 15%) and black Caribbean-British (by 8%) women are less likely than white women to receive an epidural.
• Black women are approximately 40% less likely to have an assisted vaginal birth (forceps/ventouse [suction] delivery) compared to white women but instead are more likely to have an emergency caesarean birth.
• Black Caribbean-British women in the UK are 58% more likely than white women to be given general anaesthesia for elective caesarean births; for Black African-British women, they are 35% more likely to have general anaesthesia.
• For emergency Caesarean births, black Caribbean-British women are 10% more likely than white women to be given general anaesthesia.

It’s so basic, and not as if dark skins are remotely unusual anymore b

It’s not just poverty.

The stats are broken down so a white woman in an affluent area has better outcomes than a white woman in a deprived area.

BUT even black women in affluent areas have worse outcomes than white women in deprived areas and black women in deprived areas is even worse.

The NHS is systematically racist. As a midwife I had to educate myself on how to recognise jaundice in a non white baby, I was never taught this. All the medical text books show white babies only. There are many things that are treated differently depending on skin colour and this is a huge area that is not taught and as such they receive worse care.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/livebirths/bulletins/parentscountryofbirthenglandandwales/2023#main-points

In 2023:

31.8% of all live births were to non-UK-born mothers in England and Wales (an increase from 30.3% in 2022); this continues a general increase in the percentage of live births to non-UK-born mothers.

37.3% of live births were to parents where either one or both were born outside the UK, increasing from 35.8% in 2022.

India remained the most common country of birth for non-UK-born mothers and fathers, with Pakistan remaining second.

London remained the region with the greatest proportion of births to parents where either one or both were born outside of the UK (67.4% of live births).

Wales and the North East of England had the lowest proportions of births to parents where either one or both were born outside of the UK (17.5% and 20.5% of live births, respectively).

The proportion of births to parents where either one or both were born outside the UK has been increasing across all regions.

I worked in an indigenous community where there was a great project to train indigenous doulas (and midwifes etc. but that takes longer). Having someone there who can advocate and knows the system (and can be a witness and everyone knows it) helped. I wonder if the NHS could use some of that malpractice money and fund something similar.

The awful truth is that women’s healthcare is already shitty, and Black people’s healthcare is worse, and Black labouring mothers are in the most fatal part of that Venn diagram.

I don’t understand your figures or how any of it relates to the OP.

-There are nearly 100 different nationalities living in London.
-60% of Londoners were born in the UK.
-The largest group of non-UK nationalities in London is people born in Europe.

• The maternity stats OP is talking about concern British women so I'm not sure what relevance your points about languages has.

Helpful data here https://trustforlondon.org.uk/data/country-of-birth-population/

That is true @KittyWilkinson . I honestly do not know what is wrong with posters like that.

Sorry if it's already been linked while I was posting.
This Parliamentary Report came out a few years ago.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm5803/cmselect/cmwomeq/94/report.html#heading-1
8. The reasons for ethnic disparities in mortality are not fully understood. Across aggregated ethnic groups, women are dying from the same causes, but Black and Asian women are dying more frequently.31 We heard that there were many possible reasons for the disparity in the frequency of deaths, including pre-existing conditions and co-morbidities; socio-economic factors including deprivation; and factors impacting on the care that women received, including ignorance, bias, microaggressions and racism

There have been attempts to discuss this on BMN over the years, but there's always those who land on that Board and disrupt discussions. It happens here also.

I work in maternity. The team here is ethnically diverse; there is a specialist midwifery team for BAME women and yet black women particularly have worse outcomes and frequently report feeling unheard.

No London is not black & Asian majority

• the most ethnically diverse region was London – 46.2% of residents identified with Asian, black, mixed or ‘other’ ethnic groups, and a further 17.0% with white ethnic minorities

www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/uk-population-by-ethnicity/national-and-regional-populations/regional-ethnic-diversity/latest/

The investigation should look into all those factors. This is not new information.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/12/tests-to-assess-newborns-health-not-effective-for-bame-babies-in-uk

https://data.unicef.org/resources/dataexplorer/uniceff/?ag=UNICEF&df=GLOBALDATAFLOW&ver=1.0&dq=.MNCHMMR.&startPeriod=2014&endPeriod=2024

Which countries can we learn from?

United Kingdom
()
8.31
Unit of measure: Deaths per 100000 births (Units)

It’s worth considering whether the care teams are also from a varied ethnic background and therefore whether it’s about institutional racism and poor understanding of the health needs of darker skinned people, rather than racism in the immediate care givers.

I remember reading that medical textbooks are illustrated with light skinned examples, so any symptoms will present differently on darker skins.

I don’t think that’s helpful.

It’s disgusting, and distressing that we know this- we’ve seen it, noticed it, and still not resolved it.
That said, I didn’t read the document.
I’d be interested to know the percentage of white women who raised concerns and didn't receive appropriate help. I think it’s an issue for all women, and clearly even more so for black women.
Has it been adjusted for other influences- poverty or health conditions that are more prevalent in black women?

The fact that poverty impacts health and maternity outcomes, and that black women are more impacted by poverty and therefore every other bad outcome, is appalling in itself. And poverty is getting worse, not better. Bloody scandalous.

Even a Black woman as rich and famous as Serena Williams isn't safe:

Although the hospital staff didn't seem overly concerned, she insisted on getting tests to see if blood clots had formed while she was off her regular medication.
"They were trying to talk to me, and all I could think was, “I’m dying, I’m dying. Oh my God.' ”
When her doctor finally agreed, the tests revealed that immediate surgery was necessary to keep the clots from reaching her lungs.
"Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me," she writes, calling attention to a chilling statistic.
"In the U.S., Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than their white counterparts," Williams says. "Many of these deaths are considered by experts to be preventable."
Serena Williams describes nearly dying from childbirth complications

Yes, but even that will be a problem for some people. How sad. All Women should be treated with a decent level of care, and respect, when giving birth.

Quite. It's an inescapable truth which needs addressed.

Black, and Asian Women fare worse when giving birth. Take from that whatever you wish to.

Which race is being racist though? All of them?

Makes my point really.