Structural Violence and Stress Experiences of Young Pregnant Black People.

INTRODUCTION: Approximately 10-20% of individuals suffer from mental health concerns during the prenatal period due to their vulnerability and emotional responses to stressful events. Mental health disorders are more likely to be disabling and persistent for people of color, and they are less likely to seek treatment due to stigma. Young pregnant Black people report experiencing stress due to isolation, feelings of conflict, lack of material and emotional resources, and support from significant others. Although many studies have reported the types of stressors experienced, personal resources, emotional stress responses on pregnancy, and mental health outcomes, there is limited data on young Black women's perceptions of these factors. METHODS: This study utilizes the Health Disparities Research Framework to conceptualize drivers of stress related to maternal health outcomes for young Black women. We conducted a thematic analysis to identify stressors for young Black women. RESULTS: Findings revealed the following overarching themes: Societal stress of being young, Black, and pregnant; Community level systems that perpetuate stress and structural violence; Interpersonal level stressors; Individual level effects of stress on mom and baby; and Coping with stress. DISCUSSION: Acknowledging and naming structural violence and addressing structures that create and fuel stress for young pregnant Black people are important first steps to interrogating systems that allow for nuanced power dynamics and for recognizing the full humanity of young pregnant Black people.

Obstetric experiences of young black mothers: An intersectional perspective.

BACKGROUND: In Chicago, maternal morbidity and mortality is six times more likely among Black birthing people than white, despite policy initiatives to promote maternal health equity. Disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality reflect experiences of structural inequities - including limited quality obstetric care, implicit bias, and racism resulting patient mistrust in the health care system, inadequate social support, and financial insecurity. Although there is published literature on Black women's experiences with obstetric care, including experiences with individual and structural racism, little is known about the intersection of age and race and experiences with health care. The purpose of this study was to explore the maternal health and pregnancy experiences of young Black women utilizing an intersectional theoretical lens. METHODS: In this study, we conducted two focus groups in a sample of 11 young Black pregnant people. We conducted a thematic analysis to identify codes, themes, and subthemes of the data. RESULTS: We developed two overarching themes: obstetric racism and obstetric resistance. To elucidate how obstetric racism framed our participants' healthcare experiences, we identified sub-themes: intersectional identities as young Black women, medical mistrust, and pregnancy trauma. The second major theme describes ways in which participants protected themselves against obstetric racism to engender positive health experiences. These methods of resistance included identifying advocates and relying on trusted providers. CONCLUSIONS: The current standard of obstetric care in the US is suboptimal due to individual and structural racism. This study provides unique data on the experiences with health care for young, Black pregnant individuals and delivers valuable insight into how individual and structural racism impacts obstetric care for young Black women.

Textbook typologies: Challenging the myth of the perfect obstetric pelvis.

Medical education's treatment of obstetric-related anatomy exemplifies historical sex bias in medical curricula. Foundational obstetric and midwifery textbooks teach that clinical pelvimetry and the Caldwell-Moloy classification system are used to assess the pelvic capacity of a pregnant patient. We describe the history of these techniques-ostensibly developed to manage arrested labors-and offer the following criticisms. The sample on which these techniques were developed betrays the bias of the authors and does not represent the sample needed to address their interest in obstetric outcomes. Caldwell and Moloy wrote as though the size and shape of the bony pelvis are the primary causes of "difficult birth"; today we know differently, yet books still present their work as relevant. The human obstetric pelvis varies in complex ways that are healthy and normal such that neither individual clinical pelvimetric dimensions nor the artificial typologies developed from these measurements can be clearly correlated with obstetric outcomes. We critique the continued inclusion of clinical pelvimetry and the Caldwell-Moloy classification system in biomedical curricula for the racism that was inherent in the development of these techniques and that has clinical consequences today. We call for textbooks, curricula, and clinical practices to abandon these outdated, racist techniques. In their place, we call for a truly evidence-based practice of obstetrics and midwifery, one based on an understanding of the complexity and variability of the physiology of pregnancy and birth. Instead of using false typologies that lack evidence, this change would empower both pregnant people and practitioners.

Obstetric iatrogenesis in the United States: the spectrum of unintentional harm, disrespect, violence, and abuse.

'Medical iatrogenesis' was first defined by Illich as injuries 'done to patients by ineffective, unsafe, and erroneous treatments'. Following Lokumage's original usage of the term, this paper explores 'obstetric iatrogenesis' along a spectrum ranging from unintentional harm (UH) to overt disrespect, violence, and abuse (DVA), employing the acronym 'UHDVA' for this spectrum. This paper draws attention to the systemic maltreatment rooted in the technocratic model of birth, which includes UH normalized forms of mistreatment that childbearers and providers may not recognize as abusive. Equally, this paper assesses how obstetric iatrogenesis disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), contributing to worse perinatal outcomes for BIPOC childbearers. Much of the work on 'obstetric violence' that documents the most detrimental end of the UHDVA spectrum has focused on low-to-middle income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Based on a dataset of 62 interviews and on our personal observations, this paper shows that significant UHDVA also occurs in the high-income U.S., provide concrete examples, and suggest humanistic solutions.

Impact of group prenatal care on key prenatal services and educational topics in Malawi and Tanzania.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether group prenatal care (PNC) increased key services and educational topics women reported receiving, compared with individual PNC in Malawi and Tanzania. METHODS: Data come from a previously published randomized trial (n=218) and were collected using self-report surveys. Late pregnancy surveys asked whether women received all seven services and all 13 topics during PNC. Controlling for sociodemographics, country, and PNC attendance, multivariate logistic regression used forward selection to produce a final model showing predictors of receipt of all key services and topics. RESULTS: In multivariate logistic regression, women in group PNC were 2.49 times more likely to receive all seven services than those in individual care (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.78-3.48) and 5.25 times more likely to have received all 13 topics (95% CI 2.62-10.52). CONCLUSION: This study provides strong evidence that group PNC meets the clinical standard of care for providing basic clinical services and perinatal education for pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa. The greater number of basic PNC services and educational topics may provide one explanatory mechanism for how group PNC achieves its impact on maternal and neonatal outcomes. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03673709, NCT02999334.

Inpatient Maternal Mortality in the United States, 2002-2014.

BACKGROUND: Although prior studies of inpatient maternal mortality in the United States provide data on the overall rate and trend in inpatient maternal mortality, there are no published reports of maternal mortality data stratified by timing of its occurrence across the pregnancy continuum (antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum). OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to determine whether the maternal mortality rate, trends over time, self-reported race/ethnicity, and associated factors vary based on the timing of the occurrence of death during pregnancy. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of the Nationwide Inpatient Sample database to identify pregnancy-related inpatient stays stratified by timing. Among women in the sample, we determined in-hospital mortality and used International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes to identify comorbidities and behavioral characteristics associated with mortality, including alcohol, drug, and tobacco use. Joinpoint regression was used to calculate rates and trends of in-hospital maternal mortality. RESULTS: During the study period, there were 7,411 inpatient maternal mortalities among an estimated 58,742,179 hospitalizations of women 15-49 years of age. In-hospital maternal mortality rate stratified by race showed that African Americans died at significantly higher rates during antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum periods compared to hospitalizations for Whites or Hispanics during the same time period. Although the postpartum hospitalization represents only 2% of pregnancy-related hospitalizations among women aged 15-49 years, hospitalization during this time period accounted for 27.2% of all maternal deaths during pregnancy-related hospitalization. DISCUSSION: Most in-hospital maternal mortalities occur after hospital discharge from child birth (postpartum period). Yet, the postpartum period continues to be the time period with the least maternal healthcare surveillance in the pregnancy continuum. African American women experience three times more in-hospital mortality when compared to their White counterparts.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity in the United States.

Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) is 50 to 100 times more common than maternal death, and has increased disproportionately among ethnic/racial minority women in the United States. However, specific knowledge about how the types and timing of severe maternal morbidities deferentially affect ethnic/racial minority women is poorly understood. This study examines racial/ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity during antepartum (AP), intrapartum (IP), and postpartum (PP) hospital admissions in the United States (US) for 2002-2014. We identified AP, IP, and PP hospitalizations in the National Inpatient Sample. Distribution of sociodemographic, behavioral and hospital characteristics, insurance, comorbidities, and SMM occurrence was summarized using descriptive statistics. Through Joinpoint regression, temporal SMM trends of hospitalizations were examined and stratified by race. Multivariate logistic regression assessed the association between race and SMM. We found black women have the highest proportion of SMM across all pregnancy intervals with a 70% greater risk of SMM during AP after adjusting for all cofactors. In the PP period, Hispanic women's risk of SMM is 19% less when compared to white women. Racial/ethnic disparities in SMM vary in timing and SMM type. Systematic investigation is needed to understand risks to black women and the protective factors associated with Hispanic women in the PP. Addressing racial disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality requires national policies and initiatives tailored to black women that address the specific types and timings of life-threatening obstetric complications.

Heart Failure in Pregnant Women: A Concern Across the Pregnancy Continuum.

BACKGROUND: Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States, but prevalence, correlates, and outcomes of HF-related hospitalization during antepartum, delivery, and postpartum periods remain unknown. The objective was to examine HF prevalence, correlates, and outcomes among pregnancy-related hospitalizations among women 13 to 49 years of age. METHODS AND RESULTS: We used the 2001 to 2011 Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Rates of HF were calculated by patient and hospital characteristics. Survey logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios representing the association between HF and each outcome, stratified by antepartum, delivery, and postpartum periods. Joinpoint regression was used to describe temporal trends in HF and in-hospital mortality. Over 50 million pregnancy-related hospitalizations were analyzed. The overall rate of HF was 112 cases per 100 000 pregnancy-related hospitalizations. Although postpartum encounters represented only 1.5% of pregnancy-related hospitalizations, ≈60% of HF cases occurred postpartum, followed by delivery (27.3%) and antepartum (13.2%). Among postpartum hospitalizations, there was a significant 7.1% (95% confidence interval, 4.4-9.8) annual increase in HF from 2001 to 2006, followed by a steady rate through 2011. HF rates among antepartum hospitalizations increased on average 4.9% (95% confidence interval, 3.0-6.8) annually from 2001 to 2011. Women with a diagnosis of HF were more likely to experience adverse maternal outcomes, as reflected by outcome-specific adjusted odds ratios during antepartum (2.7-25), delivery (6-195), and postpartum (1.5-6.6) periods. CONCLUSIONS: HF is associated with increased risk of maternal mortality and morbidities. During hospitalization, high-risk mothers need to be identified and surveillance programs developed before discharge.