We must end the racial disparities in maternity outcomes | Letter

Black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts (‘National disgrace’: black mothers in England twice as likely to have NHS birth investigated, 23 July). South Asian women and Muslim women also experience worse maternal health outcomes. If the woman doesn’t speak English, she is 25 times more likely to die. And these shocking statistics are without these characteristics intersecting.

I’m an obstetrician who has worked on labour wards across the south of England. But I am also a woman of mixed Black and South Asian ethnicities, and I’m Muslim. So, these aren’t just tragic statistics to me. These are women just like me dying disproportionately and unnecessarily in what should be the happiest time of their lives.

I genuinely have one of the best jobs imaginable. It’s my delightful duty and honour to safely welcome babies into this world and into their mothers’ embrace. In theatre, delivering the baby is the triumphant final act, but what actually deserves more spotlight is everything that happens backstage that heavily influences how a pregnant woman’s story ends.

We need a transformation from patient-centred to person-centred care. Simply put, that means treating the individual in front of us. This might look like signposting her to services specific to her needs, actually listening to her, ensuring language isn’t a fatal barrier, and doing the active work to de-bias our own thoughts and decision-making processes.

An NHS that is underfunded and staffed with overworked professionals relying on outdated systems is contributing to worse outcomes for these women because it makes these person-centred considerations harder to enact. I’ve seen this play out, and the statistics confirm this.

There’s no magic bullet for solving this systemic issue, but a combination of policy interventions, better cross-service collaboration and responsible use of emergent technology can go a long way to ensuring that every woman has an equal chance of a successful pregnancy.
Dr Yasmin Mulji
Specialist registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology; trustee, Maternal Mental Health Alliance