Ethnic inequities in maternal health

The report on Black maternal health from the UK government’s women and equalities committee, published on 18 April 2023,1 is yet another reminder of the slow progress in tackling serious ethnic inequities in UK maternal health. The risk of maternal death remains almost four times higher for Black women and two times higher for Asian and mixed ethnicity women, than for white women.23 These inequities were the impetus for the report, which critically assessed previous improvement attempts by the government and the NHS and made recommendations for change. Although the report focused on maternal health, the recommendations covered wider ethnic inequalities and overlapping socioeconomic inequalities.

The committee acknowledged that the causes of the ethnic inequalities in mortality are complex and not fully understood. It cautioned against focusing only on physiological and demographic factors, which could erroneously place the blame on women. The report emphasised that the government and NHS leadership have underestimated the contribution of racism to these inequalities. It explicitly highlighted the role …