Systemic racism is contributing to the rise in induced labor among Black and Latina mothers, a new study finds

CNN
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A new study by researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder found that Black and Latina mothers in the US may have been induced into labor based on the needs of white pregnant women and not their own.

The study, published Wednesday in the American Sociological Association’s Journal of Health and Social Behavior, suggests that systemic racism may be shaping obstetric care in the United States.

An analysis of more than 40 million birth records from the National Vital Statistics System showed that US births in which labor was induced nearly tripled between 1990 and 2017, the study says.

Comparing the experiences of black, Latino and white women in labor, the researchers found that the three groups had similar rates of increased induced labor, but said that women’s care decisions likely depended only on how white pregnant women were treated.

“There are institutional norms, assessments, behaviors and practices that could be taking a cue from the white population and then being applied indiscriminately to the black and Latino population of childbearing age,” said Ryan Masters, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor of sociology. from the University of Colorado Boulder, he said in a statement.

“That is incredibly concerning because it is effectively racism at the institutional level that manifests itself in these obstetric clinical practices,” she added.

The study was based on a sample of 41.1 million single first births across the country, including 26.4 million white women, 6.2 million black women and 8.4 million Latinas. Data for births among white women were from all 50 states, but data for black and Latino women only included 43 and 47 states, respectively. All groups were represented in Washington, DC, the study says.

Gestational smoking, maternal diabetes, maternal hypertension, and high gestational weight gain were considered factors for high-risk pregnancies. The researchers said that more white women were induced to labor when there was evidence of risk factors in that population.

But there wasn’t a strong link between more black and Latina women going into labor and the presence of risk factors within their race or ethnicity, the study says.

“The results suggest that systemic racism may be shaping US obstetric care in that care is not ‘focused on the margins’ but rather responds to the characteristics of the states’ white populations,” says the study.

The study authors said their findings may be limited but are consistent with “an extensive literature documenting inequity in health care” in the US The study provides strong evidence that obstetric care “has not been focused on the needs of the black and Latino populations of childbearing age”.

“I hope it is compelling evidence for clinicians and others to heed calls from others to be sensitive to the ways in which they are malicious or not. The ways in which our institutional practices can perpetuate unequal treatment,” Masters said.