Closing the Gap on racial inequalities in birth: we need your help
WARNING: This blog post contains information about racial disparities in birth and health outcomes for women and birthing people. Please read with care.
Black women and birthing people are 3.7 times more likely to die giving birth than white women and birthing people. Asian women and birthing people are 1.7 times more likely to die giving birth than white women and birthing people. The problem is not the bodies of women and birthing people, but the systemic racism that exists in the maternity care they are receiving. We need change, and we need your help to achieve it.
We’ve worked alongside some of the top inclusion and healthcare experts in the UK to create a FREE training opportunity for healthcare professionals on this urgent issue. And now we need your help to get them signed up to it.
“Black people, Asian people, and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds are not being heard when they speak up. They often face biases not just from individual healthcare professionals but also from the systems that are built to support and care for them. And we all play a part, so we all need to do better.”
Benash Nazmeen, Midwife and Midwifery Educator, Closing the Gap contributor
Take action:
Here’s a list of actions YOU can take to help spread the word to help close the gap in health outcomes for women and birthing people in the UK. This is an urgent human rights issue, and we all have a role to play in doing the work to end it.
Download our Closing the Gap leaflet and take it to your next midwife appointment.
Use our template letter to write to your GP surgery urging them to sign their staff up to the Closing the Gap programme, and to tell their peers and colleagues about it.
Use our template letter to write to your maternity unit to let them know about this vital, free training opportunity.
Our aim is to get this course in front of 10,000 healthcare professionals by the end of 2023. An ambitious goal, but with your help we know it’s possible. The more people who know about the workshop, and why it’s so important, the more chance we have of achieving this goal.
“Inspire others by being a champion of positive change. This will help to improve outcomes for all pregnant and birthing people. ”
Clotilde Abe & Tinuke Awe, founders Five x More campaign
Closing the Gap workshop, explained:
Closing the Gap is a new virtual CPD course created for healthcare professionals within the NHS, by The Positive Birth Company in partnership with the South West AHSN (Academic Health & Science Networks).
The course features workshops from experts within the healthcare and inclusivity space, offering an introduction to cultural awareness and sensitivity and how implicit bias impacts patient care and health outcomes, while shining a light on the racial disparities in maternal mortality rates.
The Closing the Gap CPD training programme has been designed as an introduction for healthcare professionals dedicated to building an inclusive and culturally sensitive practice of care for their patients. The resource is free, and requires a time commitment of under two hours. All healthcare professionals who have completed the course also receive a certificate of completion for CPD monitoring.
