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Members of the Philadelphia City Council commemorated International Women's Day on Friday by discussing racial disparities in maternal mortality. They invited local leaders, politicians and medical experts to discuss the causes and possible solutions.
The Public Health and Human Services Committee, chaired by City Councilor Nina Ahmad, convened a public hearing to address inequities in the region's health care system.
In many developed countries, fatal births have continued to decline in recent decades. However, maternal deaths are increasing in the United States. In 2021, 1,205 women died from maternal causes in the United States, compared to 861 in 2020 and 754 in 2019. The maternal mortality rate in 2021 was 32.9 per 100,000 live births, and in 2020 it was 23.8. According to the CDC, black women die 2.6 times as often as white women, and economic, geographic, and other health issues persist.
Michelle Lamar Suggs, a Royal Generation chaplain and certified midwife at Penn Medicine, told City Council members that the disparity is indicative of a broader problem in health care and life in the United States.
“While we have tried to improve the symptoms of this crisis, we have turned a blind eye to the root causes,” Suggs said. “The roots of racism, the roots of classism and gender oppression.”
Dr. Stacey Karem, a pediatrician and director of maternal, child and family health at the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, brought the audience to tears as she spoke at length about her work investigating deaths from childbirth complications.
“I read the death certificate,” Karem said. “How to find people. Who found them? I hear their voices in my head, that's why I do this job.”
