Women in the United States die from pregnancy-related causes at a higher rate than women in any other wealthy country in the world.

While all US women have experienced an increase in maternal mortality over the past two decades, the rate among Black women has increased most precipitously. Today, Black women are roughly three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women, regardless of their economic or educational status. The COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated what was an already dire trend for Black women.

In IWPR’s series, Birthing While Black: The Urgent Fight for Maternal Health Reform, we will tell the story of how we got here: What are the roots of our health and economic systems? Why have they evolved in ways that have continually harmed Black women and are increasingly bad for all of us? We will examine different dimensions of the Black maternal health crisis, including the labor market segregation of health care workers, data collection on maternal health outcomes, and links between the maternal health crisis and the proliferation of reproductive health restrictions.