What is the purpose of the guest post about black women dying?

[mamanrose]

It may be very traumatic for your black site users to read information about black women dying after childbirth. Especially on a majority white website.

What is the purpose of this post other than to elicit black trauma and further dehumanize black women? Many of whom are pregnant or have gone through their own traumatic experiences?

It also invites commentary on the topic of black women dying.

Because it's an issue that HCP's and the general public should be aware of.

If I were pregnant and statistically more at risk, I'd want to know about it so that I can mitigate it.

The institutional racism of the medical establishment, with its focus on white bodies (and some absolute mistruths re: black bodies) is another example of how Black people are disadvantaged in today's society.

It is uncomfortable and upsetting to read- but for this exact reason people should read it.

We've just posted this on the other thread @mamanrose but posting it here too:

Point taken, and thank you for raising it. It's a really tricky balance (one we've thought about before when covering things such as the risk of serious birth injuries or stillbirths) - of course we don't want to frighten people without being able to share constructive advice but we hope the Five X More messages shared in the OP provides that and will help to empower expectant mothers who are particularly affected by this issue.

@BojanaMumsnet

We've just posted this on the other thread *@mamanrose* but posting it here too:

Point taken, and thank you for raising it. It's a really tricky balance (one we've thought about before when covering things such as the risk of serious birth injuries or stillbirths) - of course we don't want to frighten people without being able to share constructive advice but we hope the Five X More messages shared in the OP provides that and will help to empower expectant mothers who are particularly affected by this issue.

How exactly will this empowers black mothers?

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy

Because it's an issue that HCP's and the general public should be aware of.

If I were pregnant and statistically more at risk, I'd want to know about it so that I can mitigate it.

The institutional racism of the medical establishment, with its focus on white bodies (and some absolute mistruths re: black bodies) is another example of how Black people are disadvantaged in today's society.

It is uncomfortable and upsetting to read- but for this exact reason people should read it.

Unfortunately it's hard to mitigate institutional racism @TrollTheRespawnJeremy

I’d be interested to hear what different black women think about your query, and imagine there maybe varied views. But my suspicion is that many will welcome acknowledgement of injustices that they know to be true. Yes it’s hard to mitigate institutional racism, but surely the only way to do it is to talk about it and engage as many people as possible in fighting it where they see it. Taking the MeToo movement as a comparison, all women know that sexual harassment to one degree or another is part of their life in our society. It is hard to remove this. Does that mean we should not talk about it, for fear of traumatising women?

@Merename

I’d be interested to hear what different black women think about your query, and imagine there maybe varied views. But my suspicion is that many will welcome acknowledgement of injustices that they know to be true. Yes it’s hard to mitigate institutional racism, but surely the only way to do it is to talk about it and engage as many people as possible in fighting it where they see it. Taking the MeToo movement as a comparison, all women know that sexual harassment to one degree or another is part of their life in our society. It is hard to remove this. Does that mean we should not talk about it, for fear of traumatising women?

The first thing I see when I open the mumsnet app is "Black women are fine time more likely to die during childbirth". How would you feel if this was about white women? It's utterly dehumanising to open a discussion on black deaths, especially 3 moths after giving birth!

First step in mitigating institutional racism is recognising it and understanding how it affects those who have been disenfranchised by it.

It’s such an important story. It is vital information- it should always take precedence over a ‘fluff’ story.

Just because we are new parents, we are not lesser people who are unable to process information.

@TrollTheRespawnJeremy

First step in mitigating institutional racism is recognising it and understanding how it affects those who have been disenfranchised by it.

It’s such an important story. It is vital information- it should always take precedence over a ‘fluff’ story.

Just because we are new parents, we are not lesser people who are unable to process information.

Yes. Change should be made within the healthcare profession rather on the internet for light reading.

Also if you are not black you do not understand the effect of these posts

@mamanrose

It may be very traumatic for your black site users to read information about black women dying after childbirth. Especially on a majority white website.

What is the purpose of this post other than to elicit black trauma and further dehumanize black women? Many of whom are pregnant or have gone through their own traumatic experiences?

It also invites commentary on the topic of black women dying.

A lot of HCPs and midwives are on MN, and something like this could help raise their awareness of the issue, which they may not have come across in their training, and which could help save lives.

It sounds like you've recently gone through pregnancy and Labour? Such a tough time and we are all really vulnerable afterwards, whatever our circumstances. You seem pretty upset by this, have you got somebody to talk to in RL?

I think posts like this do serve an important purpose but are also hard to read.

Hope you're ok

@mamanrose I'm black.

I'm glad more awareness is finally been given to this subject on mumsnet due to the wide audience it has. Issues involving women's healthcare particularly black and other non-white women don't go away if people don't openly speak about it.

I was made aware by my antenatal team of the points on the poster. Incidentally, the staff who brought up those points were all Asian. My DP (white) was then shocked by how I was treated by the white maternity ward team until I was in labour, then some non-white staff members came on duty.