Join us in Washington, D.C. at the Wilson Center (and online!) next Thursday, November 19 from 10a-12p EST to hear from experts from the federal to local level about what is driving the rising maternal mortality ratio and why African American women are faring the worst.
From 1990 to 2013, the maternal mortality more than doubled in the United States from 12 to 28 deaths per 100,000 live births. Globally, the United States ranks worse than most developed nations, at 65th in the world. Contributing to these dismal numbers are deep inequities in health across race, socioeconomic status, and geography. Black women die at a rate that ranges from three to four times the rate of their white counterparts, a difference that has remained largely unchanged over six decades.
However, disparities in underlying health are not sufficient to fully explain unequal rates of maternal mortality in the United States, and the quality of care received is also a significant factor.
Join us for a discussion on inequities in U.S. maternal mortality within the context of global maternal health goals. Panelists will outline various health system, reproductive justice, and community approaches to addressing these inequities.
Speakers
Bette Begleiter
Deputy Executive Director, Maternity Care Coalition
Dr. Michael C. Lu
Associate Administrator, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Monica Simpson
Executive Director, SisterSong – The National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
Moderator
Sandeep Bathala
Senior Program Associate, Wilson Center
Want to attend but can’t? Tune in to the live or archived webcast at WilsonCenter.org.
Join the conversation on Twitter @MHTF and @NewSecurityBeat and by following #mhdialogue. To find more coverage of these issues, follow our blog series, Inequities in Maternal Mortality in the U.S.