Jade Ajao is not asking for preferential treatment. She just wants things to be equal. Specifically, she does not believe that black women like her should be at a disproportionately higher risk of dying during their pregnancy.
The 31-year-old nearly lost her life after giving birth and is wondering if it was because of the colour of her skin. While the UK’s maternal death rate is low, black women are four times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth and for up to six weeks after, than white women. Asian women are two times more likely to die.
Ajao’s three young daughters may themselves decide to have children one day. “It wouldn’t sit right with me if in 20, 25 years’ time, the statistic is still the same or has got even higher,” she tells i.
These statistics are at the centre of The Black Maternity Scandal, a documentary that airs on Channel 4 on Monday night. Presented by singer and mother-of-three Rochelle Humes, it seeks to understand the disparity and how societal biases are affecting maternity care.
It highlights the lack of data around the maternal near-misses like Ajao experienced after giving birth to twin girls nearly two years ago.
She had an elected caesarean section as a safer option after haemorrhaging during her first pregnancy. After giving birth, she was put on morphine, but she remained drowsy for hours and began complaining of pain in her stomach. Her husband started to raise the alarm but was told his wife’s observations were fine. When they dropped about 14 hours after giving birth, doctors found blood in her stomach and rushed her into surgery.
“If you have a mother who has given birth and made no attempt to feed her children, no attempt to get up and go to the toilet, no attempt to eat, you can look at the obs and say that they’re fine but it just doesn’t make any sense why I was left for so long,” said Ajao, who lives in Essex and works for a financial institution.
She was not aware of the maternal death statistics until later. They made her question whether her skin colour had anything to do with what happened. “I started to put the pieces of the puzzle together as to why I, basically, nearly died.”
She hopes the documentary will raise awareness of the issue. “Nobody is asking for preferential or better treatment. It’s just literally: ‘Can we lower the rates so it’s a bit more equal?’ There just shouldn’t be ‘any times more likely’ due to the colour of your skin.”
While there are a multitude of factors behind the maternal death disparity, many pregnant black women feel that they are not listened to and that their pain is not taken seriously.
Mars Lord, a doula who supports women while they give birth, says “structural and systemic racism” was behind the statistics. “If white women were dying at such rates, there would be a national outcry and laws, systems, reviews and targets to end it would proliferate,” she says.
Tinuke Awe, a co-founder of the Five X More campaign that lobbies officials to tackle the disparity, felt like she did not matter during a difficult experience giving birth to her son. The mother-of-two, 29, says the one thing binding together women with negative experiences was their skin colour. “That’s the sad reality we face.”
The group’s petition calling for research into the statistics is due to be debated in Parliament on 19 April. Awe says black women need to be involved in the decision-making to address the disparity.
Nadine Dorries, Minister for Maternity, said: “The colour of a woman’s skin should have no impact on her or her baby’s health and I am absolutely committed to tackling disparities and making sure all women get the right support and best possible maternity care.
“I have launched an oversight group to monitor how the health service is tackling maternal inequalities, and as part of the NHS Long Term Plan, at least three quarters of pregnant black, Asian and minority ethnic women will receive care from the same midwives during pregnancy and after they give birth by 2024.”
Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, NHS England’s Chief Midwifery Officer, said: “The NHS is one of the safest places in the world to have a baby but any woman who has a poor experience of maternity care is one too many.
“We are committed to tackling poorer outcomes for women from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority backgrounds – including by fast-tracking our continuity of carer programme for these groups, which will mean women receive care from the same midwife and team before, during and after they give birth, which we know improves people’s experiences and outcomes.”
The Black Maternity Scandal: Dispatches airs on Channel 4 on Monday at 8pm
