Black Maternal Mental Health
By Loretta Blevins, APCC 4414
Black Maternal Mental Health Week, July 19 - 25, 2020, is dedicated to Black moms, in order to bring awareness to their unique maternal mental health experiences. Racism surrounding maternal mental health in the United States are inequalities that are social, economic and political in nature. These structural inequalities that are within the healthcare system, can have negative impacts on the mental health of Black women and their families, even before a black mother gets to the health care system.
Even though black mothers are 4 times more likely to experience perinatal mental health issues they are less likely to seek mental health services. Some factors that contribute to access to care for black moms can be the limited anti-biased, anti-racist and culturally reflective mental health providers as well as provides who reflect their cultural and racial identities of their clients. We want to highlight @TherapyForBlackGirls and @BlackFemaleTherapists as two resources where black mothers can connect with black therapists.
Historical trauma due to the terror of slavery; forced wet nursing; and midwives being removed from Black communities, have contributed to transgenerational traumas that have become an epigenetic issues. All of this is out of the control of a black mother, but may cause so many risk factors that contribute to maternal mental health problems. Black mothers are 3 times more likely to die during childbirth compared to white mothers. To learn more about how racism impacts pregnancy and infant health, watch this TED Talk by Miriam Zoila Perez.
This is why Black Maternal Mental Health Week provides the needed specialized attention and information. Anti-biased, anti-racist and culturally reflective training and care is so important to dismantle the bias within healthcare systems and help Black Mothers and Babies thrive.
To learn more about how to support the Black Maternal Mental Health initiatives:
