Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Black women in the UK 5 times more likely to die in childbirth or after pregnancy

77 replies

OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 12:05

I decided to sign the petition, on the parliament site.
On 14th June Nancy Kelley retweeted this, with the message “Please sign! #BlackLivesMatter.” She added an emoji ? (But remember I’m well intentioned but technologically inept)
Can someone who can twitter ask Daniel Radcliffe if she needs to be cancelled? The w word was mentioned a lot, and there was a maternity which might be banned too.

OP posts:
OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 12:07

Nancy is @NancyMK and she took over as Stonewall CEO on 1st June.

OP posts:
EarlofEggMcMuffin · 15/06/2020 12:15

OP I'm not sure what point you hope to make.

I would not want the v serious matter of poor maternal care outcomes for black women to be hijacked.

I get what you are saying but dont muddy the waters.
Black women's health is not a football to be kicked about.

bishopgiggles · 15/06/2020 12:15

Do you have a link to what you're on about? That 5x figure is shocking - was this a study or something?

forsucksfake · 15/06/2020 12:23

OP, I take your point and it is a valid one, in my eyes.
No one is getting cancelled and attacked for saying that "black women are 5X more likely to die in childbirth" instead of the "gender-inclusive" black people".

That Nancy would retweet it without acknowledging that black men are also giving birth is hypocrisy.

It is almost as if they know that only black women are actually birthing babies and facing 5X the possibility of maternal death in childbirth.

forsucksfake · 15/06/2020 12:26

And here is a link to one of the studies:

www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/downloads/files/mbrrace-uk/reports/MBRRACE-UK%20Maternal%20Report%202018%20-%20Web%20Version.pdf

WorkingItOutAsIGo · 15/06/2020 12:26

I am very uncomfortable with you using this topic as a gotcha- first campaign on the issues and when you have fixed that perhaps then use the inconsistencies for other political battles.

The only new mother I knew who died as a result of having a baby was a wonderful Black woman.

OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 12:29

Hi the petition is still live. It is "Improve Maternal Mortality Rates and Health Care for Black Women in the U.K."
It must now be scheduled for a parliamentary debate. I did know that in the US black people received worse health care, and there seemed to be a particular issue with maternity care, I could probably find those articles etc. but I don’t know much about the issue in the UK. But i did sign!

OP posts:
CuriousaboutSamphire · 15/06/2020 12:29

I'm far more uncomfortable with the new CEO using this as some sort of obfuscation than I am by any woman noticing and commenting on it!

OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 12:31

Thank you for sharing that Working. Thank you for the link for

OP posts:
forsucksfake · 15/06/2020 12:39

And I have signed the petition. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

I am black, and this is frequently discussed on social media accounts I follow, but I had never seen a link the petition or heard it discussed before today.

FishAreAcquaintancesNotFood · 15/06/2020 12:53

I am very uncomfortable with you using this topic as a gotcha- first campaign on the issues and when you have fixed that perhaps then use the inconsistencies for other political battles.

I agree. I don't think an intelligent response explaining why it is important that we continue to use the word women to discuss female oppression would be wrong though. Black women's lives do matter and we need to be able to discuss their oppression coherently. But I certainly wouldn't use it as a gotcha at Radcliffe or to point out her hypocrisy.

Can someone post a link to the current petition as the one I see closed in 2019?

DonkeySkin · 15/06/2020 12:58

Black women's health is not a football to be kicked about.

This. Surely Nancy Kelley's retweet is irrelevant to the actual issue here.

Link to petition:

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/301079

It's already got more than 100,000 signatures, so hopefully it will be discussed in parliament.

FishAreAcquaintancesNotFood · 15/06/2020 13:16

Signed @donkeyskin thank you. I'll email my useless MP about it later when the kids have gone to bed too.

OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 13:21

Would one of you like to post a better thread, with the good links, and when the new thread is up I can ask mumsnet delete this one?
I apologise if I offended anyone.

OP posts:
OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 13:24

And can I apologise for that post as well. The non apology has become a bad reflex. I need to stop.
Please, someone start a new thread.

OP posts:
FishAreAcquaintancesNotFood · 15/06/2020 13:27

It's up to you Oneepisode, I think you made a point and then people politely disagreed, which you took on aboard apologised. To me, that seems like quite a good conversation and quite a rare one these days. It's also probably a useful to discussion to have generally when all the trans stuff is happening at the same time as #BLM.

Also if anyone does start a convo with the lniks it will get kicked into the long grass of the petition section.

FishAreAcquaintancesNotFood · 15/06/2020 13:28

And can I apologise for that post as well. The non apology has become a bad reflex. I need to stop. Please, someone start a new thread.

Grin
stumbledin · 15/06/2020 13:36

There was quite a lot of publicity around this last year, but the media (and MPs?) lost interest.

So it is a hard fact to face that it only now there has been the publicity about the higher proportion of BAME people dying from coronavirus and the rise of the BLM campaign has got this important issue back on the agenda.

Here are some other links from last year:
www.aims.org.uk/journal/item/mbrrace-bame
www.unicef.org.uk/babyfriendly/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/Kimberly-Seals-Allers-slides.pdf
www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk/media-information/press-releases/150-press-release-birth-trauma-association-calls-for-action-on-maternal-death-rates-amongst-bame-women

(Not sure that all of these are necessarily feminist - but at least raise the issue.)

OhHolyJesus · 15/06/2020 13:37

Thanks for posting OP.
It's and important and relevant and I will sign and check for updates here. The maternal health care in the Us is one of the worst in the world and I'm sadly not at all surprised at this statistic. It's relevant to recently passed commercial surrogacy in NYC too which I have been watching with keen interest.

It's important in the context of Stonewall in that TWAW (I note women is not spelt womxn here) would this issue include men? As it relates to female biology/women's bodies and reproductive systems you would think not but as Nancy thinks TWAW I imagine she would be protesting for maternal health for men too.

endofthelinefinally · 15/06/2020 13:39

This is on the pregnancy board and hasn't been removed so far.

OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 13:41

Thanks to all the voices! Good point that the petition section isn’t well read so by my ineptly merging two issues maybe some extra people had the chance to sign this.

This petition was simply worded, so ordinary people like me could gasp at the inequity, and then bother to qualify to sign the petition (it was easy, I had to be on a device that received emails, so I could click on a link to confirm, given name and postcode, confirm UK citizenship)

I do think JK had a point that using language like “ menustrators” instead, doesn’t help ordinary people understand a simple inequity., have empathy, and act.

OP posts:
FishAreAcquaintancesNotFood · 15/06/2020 13:46

ohholyjesus the the link has to be signed by those living in the UK and that's what the statistic is for, I'd be surprised if the divide wasn't worse in the states down to the insurance issue and provision for all women.

RoLaren · 15/06/2020 14:06

From the report: 'Previous research has suggested that this inequality of outcome may be partly explained by gestational diabetes during their current pregnancy, medical comorbidities, previous pregnancy problems and inadequate use of antenatal care.'

OneEpisode · 15/06/2020 14:16

Did they evaluate that inadequate use of antenatal care at all? Like checking all had the same ability to get paid time off for appointments, welcoming providers near to home, anything like that?

OP posts: