Event held on Feb. 24, 2024 at Hamilton Park UMC.
Resources are all listed below.
Experts explained the reality of the preventable tragedy maternal morbidity for women of color, and the policy and cultural barriers responsible for the situation. A Texas lawmaker shared how Attendees divided into small groups to discuss ways to advocate for change and what they could commit to doing in 2024.
This event welcomed many guests from the community to learn more about this important subject.
Click for Photo Album of this event. Please send your pictures to news@UWFNorthTexas.org to share!
Symposium Resources:
- Video: recording of the event
- Video: What is Advocacy? Does it Make a Difference? - Bee Moorhead from Texas Impact
- Dr. Kristen Priddy's slides: Overview of the Situation: the Christian Basis for Decreasing Maternal Mortality
- Dr. Kyrah Brown's slides: Issues of Social and Racial Justice -- Racial Disparities in Maternal Outcomes
- List of articles, websites, books, documentary, and printed handouts - see below Speakers' bios
Speakers:
Dr. Kyrah Brown, PhD, is a health equity researcher and community psychologist. She is an assistant professor of public health in the Kinesiology Department at the University of Texas – Arlington, and the Research Director of the Maternal and Reproductive Health Equity Research Lab, also at the University of Texas - Arlington.
Dr. Kristen Priddy, PhD, RN, CNS, works to improve nursing education in the US and around the world. She has taught undergraduate nursing students in OB clinicals at the University of Texas – Arlington and Texas Christian University. Having proviDrded nursing care to critically ill newborns herself, she has been involved in hospital-based fetal-infant mortality review committees.
Rep. Toni Rose, Texas State Representative, provided an update of HB 12. Her laser focus on improving healthcare outcomes has driven her to pass numerous health care bills, including legislation that extends postpartum pregnancy benefits from two months to 12 months. This legislative remedy will enable new moms to receive medical and psychological care for an extended time frame.
MORE INFORMATION about Disparities in Maternal Health
Newspaper and Journal Articles
(Note: If the Control + Click function does not open the article, right click on the link and choose the “open hyperlink” option.)
- Reproductive Justice Includes Access to Safe Drinking Water: Sarah Sloat, yesmagazine. https://www.yesmagazine.org/health-happiness/2023/01/12/pregnancy-clean-drinking-water
- For Black Women, Reproductive Justice Is About More than High-Risk Pregnancies. https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/04/02/black-women-fertility-reproductive-justice
- American Indian and Alaska Native Maternal and Infant Mortality: Challenges and Opportunities. https://americanprogress.org/article/american-indian-alaska-native-maternal-infant-mortality-challenges-opportunities/
- Program aims to reduce mortality rates for at-risk new mothers - CT Plus - UT Southwestern
- Raising Awareness of Texas’ Dire Black Maternal Health Statistics - United Way of Metropolitan Dallas (unitedwaydallas.org)
- http://19thnews.org/2023/10/medical-exceptions-abortion-bans-mental-health-conditions
Books
- Medical Apartheid by Harriet A. Washington
- Trust Women: A Progressive Christian Argument For Reproductive Justice by Rebecca Tod Peters
- A Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine by Uche Blackstock, MD
- Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on Health in America by Linda Villarosa
Video News Stories
- What is Texas doing about the higher rates of maternal mortality among Black women? - CBS News
-
Doula works to improve maternal health care for Black and underserved women - CBS News
Websites:
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/maternal-child-health/maternal-mortality-morbidity-review-committee
https://www.cms.gov/priorities/health-equity/minority-health
Pregnancy Justice: https://www.pregnancyjusticeus.org/
Black Maternal Health Momnibus | Black Maternal Health Caucus (house.gov)
Dallas Healthy Start | Parkland Health
https://www.tarrantcountytx.gove/en/public-health/family-health-services.html
https://www.dentoncounty.gov/643/Public-Health
https://www.collincountytx.gov/Services/Health-Care-Services
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/maternal-child-health/healthy-texas-mothers-babies
https://www.essence.com/news/groups-improving-maternal-health-black-women/
Documentaries
- Aftershock- The Documentary (2022) – Hulu Hulu.com/movie/aftershock-c1414fdf-0741-4bd2-b62c-554db3d8f643
Printed Handouts
- Why Delighted to Doula?
- Texas Impact Issue Brief 2023 Abortion: Restore Women’s Bodily Autonomy
- Pregnancy-Related Deaths Among American Indian or Alaska Native Persons: Data from Maternal Mortality Review Committees in 36 US States, 2017–2019
- Reproductive Justice Includes Access to Safe Drinking Water
- Texas’ maternal mortality rate remains above national average as help sought
- Charter for Racial Justice
from Congress
- American Indian and Alaska Native Maternal and Infant Mortality: Challenges and Opportunities
