Black Maternal Health Can't Wait Any Longer – Here's What Needs To Change
Today, MPs are speaking in parliament about what is being done to improve health outcomes for Black women and birthing people.
And while talk is needed, it's clear that so, too, is action.
Ahead of the crucial conversation, Tinuke Awe, co-founder of Five X More, told HuffPost UK: 'We must move away from promising change and towards transforming the structures that continue to fail Black women.
'At Five X More, the conversations we have with Black mothers and birthing people are consistent and clear: real change is urgently needed, and it must move beyond awareness into action.'
Black maternal health awareness week was first founded in 2020 by Five X More, an organisation empowering, supporting and advocating for Black women and birthing people.
Awe knew there was a need for an advocacy group like hers after she was diagnosed with preeclampsia late in pregnancy and didn't feel listened to.
At the time, she ran a group where parents would get together and discuss pregnancy and motherhood. Through her conversations with others, she discovered so many women had suffered negative experiences.
'There were so many other Black mums like me who also experienced negative outcomes given birth within the NHS,' she explained on Five X More's website.
In 2019, damning statistics released by MBRRACE UK found Black women were five times more likely to die in childbirth than white women.
'I was shocked,' said Awe of the data, 'but I wasn't surprised due to the stories I heard.'
Black women are still three times more likely to die during, or in the first year after, pregnancy than white women – and suicide continues to be the leading cause of direct maternal death between six weeks and 12 months after birth.
Black mums are also twice as likely to be hospitalised with perinatal mental illness than white mums. Miscarriage rates are 43% higher in Black women – and there is also a disparity between stillbirth rates in Black babies and those of white ethnicities.
Discussing the damning statistics earlier this year, Dr Zoe Williams, a mother and NHS doctor, told HuffPost UK: 'There's a real feeling of injustice, which makes me feel so sad and disappointed.
'I think myself, as a Black woman who is somebody who works in the NHS and is very proud to work in the NHS – the fact we're failing Black women in this way, it's very disappointing.'
NHS England is developing a maternity care toolkit to support inclusive and culturally competent practice.
In 2023, the government – under Rishi Sunak's leadership – acknowledged 'we must do more' to ensure maternity care is consistent regardless of ethnicity. However it didn't set a target to end these disparities by.
In its manifesto, Labour then pledged to set a target to close the maternal mortality gap. We are still waiting for that target.
Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy secured today's parliamentary debate, which aimed to raise awareness about disparities in maternal outcomes for Black women and birthing people.
The Labour MP highlighted that it's been years now since these issues were first flagged – 'and we're still in this situation. Things absolutely have to change.'
When asked what she hopes will come out of today's discussion, Awe told me that, based on her conversations with Black women and birthing people, there is a need for commitment to the maternal mortality target.
'We need to see it implemented and monitored with real accountability,' she said.
Better data collection, is also crucial, she added, which 'meaningfully captures ethnicity, outcomes, and patient experiences, so we can tackle disparities with evidence and urgency'.
Ribeiro-Addy also flagged this issue in parliament, saying current data on racial disparities 'is limited and scattered' and that the 'lack of comprehensive research makes it difficult to see the full picture of what is happening'.
And lastly, Awe wants Black women to be listened to and believed – not just in maternal health, but across all areas of health.
Discussing the disparities, Angela McConville, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT), urged MPs from all parties to use their voices to call for urgent change.
NCT said it stands in solidarity with affected families and campaigners, and has provided a template letter to help the public encourage MPs to push for real change.
'For Black mothers and birthing people in 2025 and beyond, their lives, their health, and their experiences must be valued as a priority, not an afterthought,' said Awe.
'We're hopeful that today's debate will act as a reminder that the time for talking is over. We need action.'
HuffPost UK has contacted the government for comment and will update the piece when we hear back.
Sands works to support anyone affected by the death of a baby.
Tommy's fund research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth, and provide pregnancy health information to parents.
Saying Goodbye offers support for anyone who has suffered the loss of a baby during pregnancy, at birth or in infancy.
Dr Zoe Williams: We Need New Ways To Ask Black Mums About Their Mental Health
'Motherhood Does Not Erase Your Sexuality' – 3 Mums On Sex During And After Pregnancy
'It's Impossible To Live A Good Life': The Bleak Reality Of Living Off Maternity Pay
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Three diets that are more effective than weight-loss drugs, according to doctors
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Originally created for NHS patients at his practice in Somerset, the results were so positive, the programme has been made freely available online. 'The GLP-1 boom has at least put metabolic health on the radar,' says Dr Murdoch. 'Now we need to give people complete solutions, including lifestyle, not just the drugs.' Here are the three diets doctors recommend. Low-carb diet Key benefits: simple and sustainable The low-carb diet is proven to get results and can curb food cravings, reverse type 2 diabetes and deliver comparable weight loss to GLP-1s, suggests latest research. Cutting down on sugar and starchy carbs deprives the body of its primary fuel, glucose. It starts burning body fat instead, leading to weight loss. Blood-sugar levels stabilise, appetite regulates, and insulin levels fall, leading to better metabolic health and lower risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Dr Unwin has been spearheading the low-carb approach at his NHS clinic in Southport for the past 13 years, with striking results. 'On average, patients lose 10kg (22lbs) in the first year,' he says. 'We've helped 151 people achieve drug-free diabetes remission. That's 27 per cent of our diabetic population. We've saved £370,000 on diabetes medication.' In total, 51 per cent of Dr Unwin's patients with type 2 diabetes achieve remission, another 47 per cent get better control over their condition. And over 90 per cent of patients with pre-diabetes return to normal blood-sugar levels. Dr Unwin's approach has been adopted all over the world, through The Low-Carb Program and a free NHS-approved app. The method is simple, says Dr Unwin. 'Eat a nutritionally dense diet that doesn't raise your blood sugar.' Officially, low carb means eating less than 130g of carbs a day (for context, one apple is 25g, a bowl of pasta 40g). 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USA Today
5 hours ago
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Her doctor said her tumor was harmless, common among Black women. It was cancer.
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In a July 2024 survey of 50 cancer survivors across the U.S. who were misdiagnosed, 92% said the misdiagnosis hurt their health, 64% had their treatment delayed, and 56% said their cancer advanced to a later stage. 'Not in a million years' could it be cancer When Little's tumor was first discovered and misidentified as a fibroid, she shared the news with her family. Her mom told her it was fine; she had them too. Her aunt, who also had fibroids, said, 'It's just something that you live with.' Instead, Little attributed her symptoms to her first pregnancy, even when she became severely anemic. 'I still thought, 'OK, pregnancy is brutal,'' she says. Her anemia symptoms became so severe that Little dropped out of college and moved back home. After she had her son, her OBGYN placed her on birth control in an attempt to shrink the suspected fibroid tumor. A few months had passed, and a routine ultrasound showed that the tumor was getting larger. That was the first time cancer crossed Little's mind. "Right in that moment, I asked the doctor, 'I know you're saying that this is a fiber tumor. Could this be cancer?'" she says. The doctor reassured her: "No, not in a million years," she recalls. "You're healthy, and for women of childbearing age, fibroids are very common." But out of caution, the doctor decided to take the tumor out. Finally, she was diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma. 'I looked at my family members, and their world just crushed,' she says. 'That is when I became the eye of the storm.' They called in the grief counselor. Little was given a prognosis of 18 months to live. She was in shock. All she wanted to do was hug her baby. 'I went in there thinking, 'Oh, this is just a routine procedure to get a fibroid tumor out,' and I came out with a cancer diagnosis of a cancer I've never heard of before,' she recalls. Her doctor had no treatment plan. She searched for a second opinion and found, at the time, one of the few doctors on the East Coast who specialized in HIPEC (hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy), a two-step procedure that involves inserting high doses of chemotherapy directly into the abdomen. Black women are more likely to die from multiple cancers, despite differing incidence rates Black women have a higher risk of death than their White counterparts when it comes to certain cancers, such as breast cancer and cervical cancer, which have been studied at length. In a 2022 study of 50 Black women who had experienced perceived discrimination in medical settings, 94% of participants felt like they were receiving poorer service during medical visits, and 92% believed they were not being listened to or 'taken seriously.' In 2025, an estimated 319,750 people will be diagnosed with breast cancer in the U.S., and an estimated 42,680 people will die from the disease. While there has been an overall 44% decrease in breast cancer deaths since 1989, the mortality gap between Black and White women remains. Compared to White women, Black women have a 4% lower incidence rate of breast cancer, but a 40% higher death rate, according to the American Cancer Society. And despite differences in incidence rates across the lifespan – Black women are more likely than white women to have breast cancer before the age of 45, but less likely between the ages of 60 to 84 – Black women are still more likely to die from breast cancer at every age. Black women also have higher incidence and death rates of cervical cancer compared to white women; their 5-year survival rate (56%) is 10% lower than the national average. Early diagnosis is crucial in treatment, but White women are twice as likely to be screened for cervical cancer than Black women. A delayed diagnosis can further hinder the care a patient receives. 'It's something that is very disheartening,' Little says of her misdiagnosis. 'But it's something that as a woman of color, I've experienced time after time.' Misdiagnosis leads to decreased trust in the medical system From the Tuskegee Syphilis Study to the forced sterilization of Black women throughout the 20th century, race-based medical malpractice has been well-documented in U.S. history. In a 2024 study, 58% of Black women surveyed believed the medical system was "designed to hold Black people back." While Little survived, her trust in the medical system faltered. Eighteen years later, she's still 'very strategic' when it comes to choosing her doctors and sets high expectations for their standard of care. 'I've had doctors that, when I asked a question about my platelet counts, said, 'Black women are known to have lower platelet counts than White women,'' she says, referencing her anemia that went dismissed. 'I'm not going to take that for an answer.' Little's family relies on her now, too. When her grandma was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2023, Little was put on FaceTime with her doctors to ask the 'right questions.' 'I can just imagine my other counterparts, women of color, who go through that every day, but may not know how to respond to it, or may think that that's normal,' she says. 'You have a right as a patient to respectfully disagree with your doctor, and you have a right to lay those expectations down beforehand.'
