Healio: Cedars-Sinai Efforts Aim to Reduce Disparities in Black Maternal Health
Healio recently interviewed Kimberly Gregory, MD, MPH, director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, about the ways the hospital is working to improve Black maternal health.
Gregory, who also is vice chair of Women’s Healthcare Quality and Performance Improvement in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, told Healio that Black women in the U.S. have an increased risk of developing many health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and pregnancy-related complications that can sometimes lead to death.
“Black women have two to three times a higher … rate of maternal mortality compared to white women,” Gregory said.
She told Healio that multiple factors contribute to this disparity, including lack of insurance and access to appropriate healthcare.
“However, even in ideal circumstances, the impact of intergenerational structural racism and implicit bias contributes to these ongoing disparities,” Gregory said.
She told Healio that Cedars-Sinai is partnering with community organizations to reduce these disparities by offering doulas and midwives to support patients giving birth, providing a Reproductive Psychology Program to address depression and anxiety, and capturing patient feedback about the childbirth experience so that the medical center can make improvements where needed.
“And then finally, just increasing the awareness of complications of pregnancy, because most deaths occur in the postpartum period. So, we make sure that we are spending a lot of time educating women about what the warning signs are that should prompt them to come back,” she said.
Gregory, who holds the Helping Hand of Los Angeles—The Miriam Jacobs Chair in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, told Healio that she encourages all physicians—not only obstetrics and gynecology specialists—to pay close attention to their maternal patients’ needs.
“See these patients; don’t be afraid of pregnant women or recently postpartum women,” Gregory said. “They can benefit from your expertise as well.”
Click here to watch the entire segment on Healio.