We must end the racial disparities in maternity outcomes | Letter

Women just like me dying disproportionately and unnecessarily in what should be the happiest time of their lives, writes Dr Yasmin Mulji

Black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts (‘National disgrace’: black mothers in England twice as likely to have NHS birth investigated, 23 July). South Asian women and Muslim women also experience worse maternal health outcomes. If the woman doesn’t speak English, she is 25 times more likely to die. And these shocking statistics are without these characteristics intersecting.

I’m an obstetrician who has worked on labour wards across the south of England. But I am also a woman of mixed Black and South Asian ethnicities, and I’m Muslim. So, these aren’t just tragic statistics to me. These are women just like me dying disproportionately and unnecessarily in what should be the happiest time of their lives.

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Doctor behind trial of HIV prevention drug recounts breakthrough moment

Prof Linda-Gail Bekker receives ovation at Aids summit after presenting trial results of ‘miracle’ drug lenacapavir

When the doctor behind the trial of a new HIV prevention drug heard the results, she could not contain her emotions. “I literally burst into tears,” said Prof Linda-Gail Bekker.

“I’m 62, I’ve lived through this epidemic … I had family members who died of HIV, as did many, many Africans – many people around the world,” she said.

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Why is violence against women only getting worse? The answer doesn’t lie with Andrew Tate | Gaby Hinsliff

We are no closer to understanding why some men hate women so viciously – but we can transform how misogyny is policed

Natalie Fleet was only 15 when she got pregnant by an older man. At the time, she says she didn’t really know how to describe what was happening; didn’t see herself as being groomed, or as a child still not legally old enough to consent. If anything, she worried that she might be the one who had done something wrong, given she was the one being called a slag and a slapper. Only now, more than two decades later, does the newly elected Labour MP for Bolsover feel able to say publicly that an experience about which she apparently still has nightmares was statutory rape.

Having met the force of nature that is Fleet five years ago when she first stood unsuccessfully for election, I’m struck but not surprised by her courage in volunteering a story that perfectly illustrates what a complex crime rape can be to investigate, and how horribly common abusive behaviour is – or at least, how common it would look if everyone was as willing to talk this openly about it.

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The Guardian view on maternity care failings: black women and babies are hardest hit | Editorial

The mortality gap between mothers and infants of different ethnicities reflects the need to tackle discrimination and racism inside and outside healthcare

Childbirth is a vulnerable time for any woman. Black women have particular cause to be anxious. Their labours are almost twice as likely to be investigated for potential NHS failings, the Guardian revealed this week, with the head of the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), Gill Walton, blaming institutional racism. For every 1,000 deliveries by black women, there were 2.3 investigations, compared with 1.3 for white women.

Black women are up to six times more likely to experience some of the most serious birth complications as their white counterparts and almost four times as likely to die in pregnancy, childbirth or postpartum, while Asian women are almost twice as likely to die. Black babies are almost twice as likely to die as white; Asian babies are also at greater risk.

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It’s scary to be Black and give birth in England. These are the ways the NHS is letting us down | Tinuke Awe

New evidence confirms Black mothers are far more at risk than their white peers. After my own traumatic experience, I’m not surprised

The fact that Black mothers in England are almost twice as likely to have their births investigated for potential NHS safety failings is shocking and unacceptable – but for me, it’s not entirely surprising. As someone who co-founded Five X More after my own distressing birth experience, I find these statistics hit close to home. The higher rates of investigations among Black mothers reflect a grim reality: Black women and their babies in the UK face significantly greater risks during childbirth.

For every 1,000 deliveries by Black women, 2.3 are investigated compared with 1.3 for white women, the Guardian found – figures that highlight the deep-rooted systemic issues in our healthcare system. They are also four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth, and they have severe complications more frequently than their white counterparts. Black babies in England are three times more likely to die than white babies and also more likely to suffer a brain injury. These are not isolated incidents but part of a broader, systemic issue that requires urgent action.

Tinuke Awe is the co-founder of Five X More, an organisation campaigning for Black maternal health outcomes in the UK. This article was co-written by her co-founder, Clotilde Abe

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Pregnant women suffer racist and discriminatory abuse at NHS trust, says inquiry head

Nottingham maternity review finds women were refused interpreters, mocked and treated unkindly

Expectant mothers at a scandal-hit NHS trust have experienced “discriminatory and racist behaviour” including midwives mimicking their accents and refusing to provide interpreters, according to the head of an inquiry into its failings.

As part of the largest inquiry into a single service in the history of the NHS, Donna Ockenden is speaking with more than 1,900 families who have experienced stillbirth, neonatal death, maternal death or babies diagnosed with brain damage at Nottingham University hospitals NHS trust (NUH).

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Family accuse London hospital of ‘negligence and discrimination’ after death of mother and baby

Ayaan Waeys, who had Somali heritage, had shown symptoms of pre-eclampsia and died at St Thomas’ hospital after giving birth to stillborn girl

• ‘National disgrace’: black mothers in England twice as likely to have child’s birth investigated

Ayaan Waeys was 36 when she died at St Thomas’ hospital in London after giving birth to her first child, a girl who was stillborn two months before her due date in 2022.

Her sister, Fowsiyo Ali Waeys, said there had been many signs that she was probably suffering from pre-eclampsia, a pregnancy complication, but she was not seen by a doctor at the hospital appointments she attended in the weeks before her death.

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