Health Topics

We all love to hear positive birth stories from black birthing women. When institutional racism and how Black women are mistreated during labor and delivery are not addressed, we help continue the cycle. Today, black women in San Francisco now have several culturally affirming resources and services to support them in creating a safe and healthy pregnancy journey, which can lead to a positive birthing experience. In the Black Infant Health Program, we’re here to help ensure Our Black mothers are:

• Connected to community services.
• Receiving culturally affirming support from a midwife, doula, and birthing team
• Financially Stable
• Permanently housed
• Have a stable mental health status
• Can advocate for themselves and their families
• Have a sound support network/system
• Can effectively communicate and be heard by doctors/nurses regarding their medical questions and concerns during their prenatal and postpartum appointments.

It is essential to recognize the potential influence of race on health outcomes, and race itself is not biological but rather a social construct with profound socioeconomic and health consequences. Black women reported that providers do not listen to them and found that 11% of Black women reported being unfairly treated based on race or ethnicity. Okwandu, et al, 2022. Black women also reported feeling pressured to have a C-section birth almost twice as often as white women (18 percent compared to 9.5 percent). Forty-two percent of Black women gave birth by C-section, compared to only 29 percent of White women. In San Francisco, fiscal C-section birth rates, including half of the current year for Black women, increased from 29.6% to 31.8% in the last five years.