Maternal mortality rates in the United States are the highest of all developed nations for all women.  For Black women the have been found to be 2-4 times higher than for white women and for Native American women they have been found to be 7 - 10 times higher than for white women.  The systemic racism in the American maternal health system is leading to the needless deaths of women and steps must be taken to eliminate it.

There is a discussion on the American Medical Association Ed Hub that talks about Native American Maternal Health disparities that hits the proverbial 'nail on the head'.  See https://edhub.ama-assn.org/clinical-problem-solvers-antiracism-podcast/audio-player/18773345

NATIVE AMERICAN MATERNAL HEALTH

2021

Santhanan, L. (2022). Hourslong drives and huge bills.  Here's what the pregnant and uninsured face in South Dakota.  Accessed https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/how-south-dakota-voters-could-help-save-the-lives-of-uninsured-moms

• In the partisan debate that embroiled the ACA’s eventual passage, opponents maintained that the system would financially drain the nation and its states with little to show for it. But dozens of states have expanded Medicaid, and experts say these doomsdaypredictions have not panned out.

2021

South Dakota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (2021). Maternal Mortality and Health Disparities of American Indian Women in South Dakota.  Accessed https://www.usccr.gov/files/2021/07-14-Maternal-Mortality-and-Health-Disparities-of-American-Indian-Women-in-South-Dakota.pdf

• Significant concerns raised in the report include a lack of consistent funding for efforts to track and address issues that contribute to disproportionately high American Indian maternal mortality rates, a lack of support for traditional birth practices to support maternal health of American Indian women, and ongoing and pervasive neglect in addressing living conditions and standards of care for American Indians that collectively contribute to maternal mortality rates.

2020

Kozhimannil, K (2020). Indigenous Maternal Health - A Crisis Demanding Attention. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.0517 Accessed https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-health-forum/fullarticle/2766339

• From article:  Some aspects of maternal health equity are starting to receive the policy attention they deserve, including crises in black maternal health and rural maternity care. Yet there is little attention to the intersection of race and geography and to the safety and vitality of Indigenous mothers, who are dying at a rate 2 to 3 times higher than non-Hispanic white mothers nationally.

Kozhimannil, K. (2020). Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Among Indigenous Women in the United States.  DOI: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000003647   Accessed https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31923072/

• From article: Severe maternal morbidity and mortality is elevated among indigenous women compared with white women. Incidence is highest among rural indigenous residents. Efforts to improve maternal health should focus on populations at greatest risk, including rural indigenous populations.

2019

National Partnership for Women and Families (2019). American Indian and Alaska Native women's maternal health: Addressing the crisis. Accessed https://nationalpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/american-indian-and-alaska.pdf

• Adverse maternal health outcomes are, in part, due to the historical trauma of systemic racism, colonization, genocide, forced migration, reproductive coercion and cultural erasure.4 AIAN women also experience systemic barriers that create unequal social conditions relative to white women

Theobold, B. (2019). Reproduction on the Reservation: Pregnancy, Childbirth and Colonialism in the Long Twentieth Century. BOOK Accessed https://uncpress.org/book/9781469653167/reproduction-on-the-reservation/

• As Brianna Theobald illustrates, the federal government and local authorities have long sought to control Indigenous families and women's reproduction, using tactics such as coercive sterilization and removal of Indigenous children into the white foster care system. But Theobald examines women's resistance, showing how they have worked within families, tribal networks, and activist groups to confront these issues.

2018

Truschel, L and Novoa, C. (2018). American Indian and Alaska Native maternal and infant mortality: challenges and opportunities.  Accessed  https://www.americanprogress.org/article/american-indian-alaska-native-maternal-infant-mortality-challenges-opportunities/

• The racial disparity in maternal and infant mortality between American Indian and non-Hispanic white communities is a problem that has only grown in recent years. Data challenges related to racial misclassification suggest that the problem is sadly even more grave than it appears

2014

Gurr, B. (2014)  BOOK: Reproductive Justice: The Politics of Healthcare for Native American Women.  Rutgers Press.  Accessed  https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/reproductive-justice/9780813575421/

• The book examines the reproductive healthcare experiences on Pine Ridge Reservation, home of the Oglala Lakota Nation in South Dakota—where Gurr herself lived for more than a year. Gurr paints an insightful portrait of the Indian Health Service (IHS)—the federal agency tasked with providing culturally appropriate, adequate healthcare to Native Americans—shedding much-needed light on Native American women’s efforts to obtain prenatal care, access to contraception, abortion services, and access to care after sexual assault

INTRODUCTION PAGE

Last updated June 2024