A panel established by the charity Birthrights is investigating discrimination ranging from explicit racism to racial bias and microaggressions that amount to poorer maternity care, it has emerged.
Among the complaints of parents included a testimony of a British Bangladeshi woman who said her labour concerns were dismissed. In her statement to The Guardian, she said, “I felt unsafe and like maternity professionals are not used to being challenged by brown women. There is a stereotype of Asian women that we are tame, quiet and compliant people who have no voice and will be obedient.
“I was treated like a vessel, not like a human. The experience left me feeling humiliated, disempowered and ashamed.”
These complaints appear ahead of next week when the parliament is due to debate the large racial disparity in maternal mortality in British hospitals, after a petition from the campaign group Five X More gathered 187,519 signatures. Black women are four times more likely than white women to die during pregnancy or childbirth in the UK.
Benash Nazmeen, co-chair of the inquiry and director of the Association of South Asian Midwives, in her statement to The Guardian, said, “Even those with very traumatic births identified at least one professional who was ‘amazing’ – whether a community midwife, health visitor or doctor. This shows good, compassionate, culturally sensitive care is possible.”
