Targeting bias to improve maternal care and outcomes for Black women in the USA

Black women in the USA face significant inequities in maternal mortality and morbidity. They die from pregnancy-related deaths at a rate three to four times higher than white women, [1] and are more likely to experience severe maternal morbidity (SMM), life-threatening complications caused or exacerbated by pregnancy, in the antepartum, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. [2] These inequities not only stem from socioeconomic factors affecting access to and quality of care, but are also linked to the stresses of racism—individual and institutional—and their long-term physiological implications.