Virtual
Today, USAID’s Harry T. Moore Chapter of Blacks in Government (BIG) and Office of Civil Rights and Diversity (OCRD) hosted “The Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Crisis: A Priority for Black America.” Each year in the United States, about 700 people die during pregnancy or in the year after, and Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women. In line with this year’s Black History Month theme of Black Health and Wellness, the event highlighted one of the most dire Black health crises the country faces today.
USAID Deputy Administrator Paloma Adams-Allen provided opening remarks, followed by a presentation from the Bureau for Global Health’s Deputy Assistant Administrator Melissa Jones reflecting on USAID’s approach to maternal health programming.
Experts and advocates in the field also participated including Representative Lauren Underwood (D-IL), founder and co-chair of the Black Maternal Health Caucus; Wanda Irving, Dr. Shalon's Maternal Action Project; Samantha Griffin, Doula and owner of DC Metro Maternity; and Ebony Marcelle, Director of Midwifery at Community of Hope Family Health and Birth Center. They discussed the factors that lead to the disparities in health outcomes among marginalized groups and suggested ways individuals and communities can get involved to help alleviate this crisis.
USAID is committed to creating a workplace where everyone has an opportunity to thrive. The Agency recognizes that when its workforce prioritizes and celebrates diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, it is better-equipped to more effectively, skillfully, and empathetically implement life-saving programs worldwide.
DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR ADAMS-ALLEN: Good morning, everyone! And thank you, Clifton and Cory, for getting us started.
I’d like to thank all of our colleagues, particularly those from the Blacks in Government employee resource group and the Office of Civil Rights and Diversity – for bringing us such rich, dynamic conversations during this Black History Month, and giving us a chance to tell our stories and hear from others.
Last week, here at USAID, we saw two gripping stories—film shorts that shed light on the physical and mental trauma that Black people are made to endure, but also showcasing Black strength and ingenuity, reminding us how beautiful and moving and necessary these stories are to our larger efforts to combat inequality.
But we’re left asking ourselves today—whose stories are actually reflected and prioritized in the systems that we interact with each day here in America?
A similar question arises as we work to promote health, safety, and opportunity in the communities we serve around the world. Are the resources we provide and programs that we develop informed, implemented, and led by the people they’re intended to benefit?
This question is central to our agenda at USAID, but as we commemorate the 96th Annual Black History Month and reflect on the theme of Black Health and Wellness, we must also be willing to confront this question in the United States, especially when it comes to the shocking disparities in health outcomes that Black women in particular face.
For nearly three decades, maternal deaths in the United States have been on the rise, even as remarkable advancements in health care delivery have been achieved in the same time.
Today, the CDC estimates that 700-to-900 new and expectant mothers die in the United States each year, with an additional half a million women experiencing life-threatening postpartum complications. More than half of these deaths and near deaths are preventable, and Black women are three-to-four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than White women.
As Administrator Power highlighted in her remarks last week, Black women in America have an average maternal mortality rate that is higher than women in countries with far lower GDP-per-capita; countries where USAID works like Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Egypt.
The numbers are devastating enough on an individual basis. But the picture that emerges when we look at the trend over the last 30 years is one of crisis for Black women and families across America.
Many of us here at USAID are on the front lines combating maternal mortality and morbidity around the world. We understand the importance of community based provision of health services, and respectful and culturally competent maternity care. Yet, some of the very same things we prioritize in our programming abroad, we neglect to secure for Black communities in the U.S.
We need to be clear about the root of the problem. We cannot blame America’s Black Maternal Mortality and Morbidity crisis on a lack of hospitals, doctors, or resources. In many cases, access to quality health care is of course an obstacle. But this crisis cuts across class and socioeconomic status, putting the lives of Black women at risk regardless of their income level or education. Research tells us that Black women often have their pain and health concerns dismissed by medical providers, leaving them to advocate for themselves in a system that routinely ignores them.
During today’s program, we’ll hear from Wanda Irving, mother of Dr. Shalon Irving. Shalon was an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a Lieutenant Commander in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She dedicated her life to understanding how structural racism influenced health disparities. She knew what caused these disparities and she worked tirelessly to bring this discussion to the attention of a nation unwilling to listen.
Shalon became the first person to earn two PhDs from Purdue University, in sociology and gerontology—and two master’s degrees, too! She had good health insurance and a strong support system. But in the days following the birth of her daughter in January 2017, she experienced troubling symptoms that she raised with her doctor repeatedly.
When her pre-eclampsia screening came back negative, Shalon was sent home without the close monitoring that could have saved her life. Just five hours later, she collapsed in her home from cardiac arrest and died at just 36 years old.
Wanda is here with us today to continue Shalon’s fight of bringing Black women’s faces and voices to the conversations surrounding their own health. We’re grateful you could be with us, Wanda.
It is a daunting task to confront a system as large and entrenched as America’s health care system; to call out its inequities and work to eliminate them, as Shalon did. But the leaders you’ll hear from on today’s panel are doing just that. They are bringing their own lived experiences to the halls of power and demanding that we invest in solutions that help protect the lives of Black moms and Black babies. They are changing paradigms in health care delivery so that the lived experiences of marginalized communities actually inform the systems that administer care.
Their efforts, including the leadership of Congresswoman Lauren Underwood of Illinois, who we’ll hear from during the discussion, have brought this crisis out of the shadows and into the policy discourse.
Last year, Congresswoman Underwood joined a coalition of Black leaders in Congress to reintroduce the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act… “Momnibus” for short… a comprehensive package of 12 bills that seeks to address the maternal health crisis in America and close the existing racial gaps in maternal and infant mortality rates.
On November 30, 2021, President Biden signed the first bill of the Momnibus into law: The Protecting Moms Who Served Act, which establishes a $15 million maternal care program within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. President Biden also signed the first-ever proclamation marking Black Maternal Health Week, followed late last year by a historic summit hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris to mark the first-ever White House Maternal Health Day of Action.
These are just a few concrete steps that lawmakers and advocates like those on today’s panel are fighting for, and thanks to their efforts to date, there is momentum building to eliminate disparities in health outcomes for Black women and families.
However outsized the systemic challenges that Black women face in America, we must continue to tackle them—and shape the conversation on Black maternal health as one of fundamental human rights.
When we talk about locally led development solutions in the countries where USAID works, we are talking about empowering local communities and giving them the tools to thrive—in health and wellness, in their livelihoods, and in their ability to support their families. But the first step is engaging and listening to local communities.
That’s why conversations like today’s are so important, as we work to close the disparities in our own health care systems. Using our voices and sharing our stories can really move the ball forward, albeit at a pace today that is unacceptable.
So thank you all, again, for being here.
And now, I’ll turn it over to Melissa Jones, one of our Deputy Assistant Administrators in our Global Health Bureau, to offer some reflections on USAID’s own work on maternal health.