March of Dimes Recognizes Black Maternal Health Week
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Thursday is the last day of Black Maternal Health Week 2025, but there are always opportunities to learn about the reproductive health challenges facing Black mothers and ways to advocate for change.
The United States already has one of the highest maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the developed world, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than White women.
Black women are more likely to die from uterine cancer—which according to the American Cancer Society is one of the few cancers with increasing mortality in recent years—as well as from cervical cancer.
They are four times more likely than White women to be hospitalized for complications related to fibroids—which are noncancerous growths in the uterus that can cause pain, bleeding, and infertility—and seven times more likely to have surgery to remove fibroids, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The rate of preterm birth among Black women is 1.5 times higher than among White and Hispanic women, according to the CDC. Preterm birth is the leading cause of infant mortality in the U.S.
Outcomes are better for Black mothers and babies when they receive care from a Black healthcare provider, according to the National Academy of Sciences, making it important that the country maintains a “culturally diverse and congruent well-trained workforce of Black perinatal health professionals.”
Virginia’s Black Maternal Health Week Summit was held on April 11, hosted by Birth in Color. This organization works to advocate for equitable maternal health care and provides pre- and postnatal support.
It also helps match pregnant women with state-certified community doulas. The presence of a doula during labor, according to the American Pregnancy Association, is associated with better outcomes for mothers.
Germanna Community College offers a six-week certified doula program.
More information about Black Maternal Health Week and resources are here.
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