Introduction
The population’s health status depends on demographic, socioeconomic, physiological, and environmental factors. One of the leading causes of health disparities is race. The issue of race concerns the physiological basis of difference and the sociopsychological foundations that have formed in society. There is a significant difference in stillbirth rates, maternal mortality, and postpartum complications for women of different ethnicities and races. The reasons for this phenomenon should be considered in detail regarding cultural and historical factors. The analysis of racial inequality and disparity shows intolerant beliefs and prejudices, which, unfortunately, still exist worldwide.
Discussion
Racial disparities have existed for a long time at all levels of social interaction. Speaking about medical indicators among pregnant women and women postpartum, it is worth resorting to a statistics review. Thus, the pregnancy-related mortality rate among women of color is three times higher than among White American women (Hill et al., 2022). Disparities in indicators also relate to morbidity during and after pregnancy, premature births, and births with insufficient birth weight. Maternal mortality is one of the leading indicators of public health in a country, and its level in the USA, unfortunately, is relatively high (Belluz, 2020). Globally speaking, the US scores extremely low on this issue and is on par with countries with low levels of health care.
Investigating the root causes of the above indicators is essential to understand the problem’s scale. First, disparities in morbidity and mortality among representatives of different races are directly related to unequal access to health care services. However, the root causes of this phenomenon are more profound socioeconomic and cultural-historical differences and the attitudes of society formed on their basis. According to the cumulative inequality theory, health problems depend not on individual factors but on established social systems (Weitz, 2020). Thus, the poverty of the family in which a person grows up, due to a natural sequence of actions and factors, affects all aspects of his future life, significantly worsening his health. This phenomenon describes the concept of cumulative stress burden. Consequently, health problems related to childbirth have their origins in socio-cultural patterns.
When discussing racial root causes of health complications or maternal mortality, it is crucial to understand that it is not about race but racism. Physiologically, women of different ethnicities and races are equally capable of giving birth to a healthy child and restoring their bodies after childbirth. Therefore, complications and cases of mortality are often the consequences of prejudiced attitudes of society both towards women during pregnancy and towards race in a global sense. For example, physicians often dismiss women of color’s complaints of pain or fetal concerns (Martin & Montagne, 2017). Interestingly, racial prejudice is so deeply ingrained in people’s minds that even well-educated women of color who belong to a higher socioeconomic class are also victims of racism in health care. Such a trend shows that the portrait of a woman of color as unfathomable, unequal, and inferior still lives in society, despite her achievements and intelligence.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is worth saying that racial prejudice is the reason for the insufficient health care for people of color. In particular, the rate of maternal mortality, stillbirth, and complications during childbirth among women of color is many times higher than among White Americans. The cumulative theory of inequality explains the root causes of this trend. Thus, the lack of health care among people of color results from racial prejudice throughout the United States. Without enough resources, the US cannot provide adequate service to all citizens equally because of racism.
References
Belluz, J. (2020). We finally have a new US maternal mortality estimate. It’s still terrible. Vox. Web.
Hill, L., Artiga, S., & Ranji, U. (2022). Racial disparities in maternal and infant health: Current status and efforts to address them. Web.
Martin, N., & Montagne, R. (2017). Nothing protects black women from dying in pregnancy and childbirth. ProPublica, 7. [PDF document] Web.
Weitz, R. (2020). The sociology of health, illness, and health care: A critical approach. Boston, Mass. Cengage Learning.