Rallying Around Sisters: How Riverside University Health System-Public Health Brings the Community Together to Support Black Maternal Health 

A social media campaign seeks to show the community what is being done to counteract and prevent infant and maternal mortality, not just focus on the negative statistics.

// By Althea Fung //

Despite great strides in medical care, the U.S. is witnessing a troubling trend — rising rates of maternal mortality and morbidity, especially among Black women and infants. Shockingly, Black women face a higher risk of pregnancy-related deaths than their white counterparts. Infants born to Black mothers are more likely to be born prematurely and have a twofold higher risk of dying in their first year compared to other ethnic groups.

In California, Black infant mortality rates are two to four times higher than any other racial group in the state, and Black mothers are three to four times as likely to die from a pregnancy-related death.

Stephanie Bryant, director of Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health at Riverside University Health System-Public Health

To combat these disparities, the California Legislature in 2018 passed the California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act, which requires hospitals and other medical facilities to train perinatal providers on unconscious bias in medicine and racial disparities in maternal deaths. The legislation also required the establishment of the Perinatal Equity Initiative, which was implemented through the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

“The purpose of this legislation was to address the high rate of infant and maternal mortality in Black women and babies,” explains Stephanie Bryant, director of Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health at Riverside University Health System-Public Health (RUHS-PH).

The alarming rate of Black maternal mortality in the United States has sparked numerous initiatives aimed at addressing this pressing issue. Among these efforts is a Black maternal health equity public awareness campaign spearheaded by the Perinatal Equity Initiative (PEI) at RUHS-PH.

“This effort allows us to serve more women differently, beyond what our long-standing Black Infant Health (BIH) program could do,” Bryant says.

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