Monday, April 12, 2021
2-3:30 p.m.
Virtual event
Promise Heights invites you to our third “From the Heights” 2021 event, featuring authors, legislators, and thought leaders. These talks are designed to inform and engage participants on current issues that impact children and families. Click here to register now for this free live event (or to reserve a link to view afterward.)
This discussion will feature a message from U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood of the 14th District of Illinois as the first woman, the first person of color, and first millennial to represent her community in Congress, as well as the youngest Black woman to serve in the House of Representatives.
Also joining the conversation moderated by reporter Tatyana Turner of The Baltimore Sun: L. Latéy Bradford, MD, PhD, chief resident, family medicine, University of Maryland Medical Center; Stacey Stephens, LCSW-C, director, B’more for Healthy Babies, Promise Heights; and Stephanie Etienne, CNM, MPH, certified nurse midwife based in Baltimore.
About the Event
In the richest nation on earth, moms are dying at the highest rate in the industrialized world — and the rate is rising. For as dire as the situation is for all women, the crisis is more severe for Black mothers. On March 11, 2021, The New York Times featured the story, “Why Black Women Are Rejecting Hospitals in Search of Better Births,” reporting that “Black mothers in the United States are four times as likely to die from maternity-related complications as white women.”
Black women also experience higher rates of maternal complications and infant mortality. They are twice as likely to lose an infant to premature death, and these disparities have not improved in more than 30 years. These disproportionate inequities exist regardless of income, educational level, or any other demographic characteristic.
The Black Maternal Health Caucus was launched by U.S. Reps. Alma Adams and Underwood to improve Black maternal health outcomes and to raise awareness within Congress about the problem and advocate for effective, evidence-based, culturally component policies and best practices for health outcomes for Black mothers.
This virtual session will provide insight on how to make pregnancy and childbirth safer in the U.S.; amplify community-driven policy, practice, and systems; and enhance community organizing on Black maternal health by taking action to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity related to childbirth.
(Note to social workers: A certificate of attendance will be provided at no cost to participants who attend the live event.)
Visit https://promiseheights.org/blog/from-the-heights to learn more about this virtual program and the full series of recent and future “From the Heights” events (and find links to view what you may have missed.)
#BlackMaternalHealthCaucus #BlackMaternalHealthWeek #FromTheHeights #Momnibus
Funding for the “From the Heights” series was provided by The Annie E. Casey Foundation and Kaiser Permanente.