Cedars and Sinai initiative aims to reduce disparities in maternal and child health for Black people

Important points:

• Barriers to improving Black maternal health outcomes stem from structural racism and implicit bias.
• A number of initiatives are underway in Cedars-Sinai to reduce racial/ethnic maternal health disparities.

Black women in the United States have twice the risk of maternal mortality as white women. Barriers to improving maternal health outcomes for Black women stem from long-standing structural racism and bias, the study found. Kimberly Gregory, MD, MPH.

Gregory is the Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai University and the Associate Director for Quality and Performance Improvement in Women's Health Care.

kimberly gregory

“Some of the obvious barriers are insurance access, lack of insurance, and social determinants of life that make it difficult or difficult to have appropriate health care facilities and environments that support prevention.” Gregory told Helio. “But even under ideal circumstances, the effects of intergenerational structural racism and implicit bias contribute to these ongoing disparities.”

In this video, Gregory talks about Cedars-Sinai's work on black-and-white topics, including leveraging doulas and midwives, a project to reduce disparities in preeclampsia, a reproductive psychology program to reduce disparities in perinatal mood disorders, and raising awareness. It describes some of the ways we are working to improve the health of people's mothers. Pregnancy complications education.

For more information:

Kimberly Gregory, MD, MPH; Please contact kimberly.gregory@cshs.org.