Thanks for reading Psychological Comments! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The BBC and other media outlets have publicised a disturbing claim in a Parliamentary report, that racism has played “a key role” in the deaths of pregnant mothers.
“They have added some interviews with mothers who felt that their concerns were ignored for racist reasons.”
That doesn’t mean that their concerns •were• ignored, and if they were indeed noted-down, or perhaps even just dismissed out-of-hand, that doesn’t mean that action was prompted by proverbial racial or racist motives -- it does even assume that all of the concerns these handful of bereaved and grieving women had were even •valid• concerns -- all that tell you is that they were not at all satisfied with the sets of answers for their questions that the NHS was able to provide to them for the death of their recently newborn child.
And why should they be satisfied?
Who could ever call themselves satisfied. after that...?
How even •could• a person feel any sort of satisfaction, or Closure in their place..? It world •never• ease-up, because of the doubt, uncertainty, self-blame, guilt and shame aspects of it.
I think that the issue is not racism per say but there are structures out there that have elevated the problem. For instance, it seems like doctors are often abusing C-sections when unnecessary which are known to drastically increase death rates. African-American women seem to have a higher likelihood of having those treatments. A lot of states without Medicaid also appear to have higher black populations. What’s interesting is that African immigrants have a child mortality rate closer to whites. There is just a lot of factors involved and we don’t have all the answers. Obesity doesn’t explain enough of the variance, and it seems like hey maybe we should look more into the grievances of these black women who are saying they weren’t treated properly in these situations. It’s certainly worth looking at but we shouldn’t assume right away that that is a main contributor without further evidence.
“They have added some interviews with mothers who felt that their concerns were ignored for racist reasons.”
That doesn’t mean that their concerns •were• ignored, and if they were indeed noted-down, or perhaps even just dismissed out-of-hand, that doesn’t mean that action was prompted by proverbial racial or racist motives -- it does even assume that all of the concerns these handful of bereaved and grieving women had were even •valid• concerns -- all that tell you is that they were not at all satisfied with the sets of answers for their questions that the NHS was able to provide to them for the death of their recently newborn child.
And why should they be satisfied?
Who could ever call themselves satisfied. after that...?
How even •could• a person feel any sort of satisfaction, or Closure in their place..? It world •never• ease-up, because of the doubt, uncertainty, self-blame, guilt and shame aspects of it.
I think that the issue is not racism per say but there are structures out there that have elevated the problem. For instance, it seems like doctors are often abusing C-sections when unnecessary which are known to drastically increase death rates. African-American women seem to have a higher likelihood of having those treatments. A lot of states without Medicaid also appear to have higher black populations. What’s interesting is that African immigrants have a child mortality rate closer to whites. There is just a lot of factors involved and we don’t have all the answers. Obesity doesn’t explain enough of the variance, and it seems like hey maybe we should look more into the grievances of these black women who are saying they weren’t treated properly in these situations. It’s certainly worth looking at but we shouldn’t assume right away that that is a main contributor without further evidence.
Thanks for the post, cleared some things up for me hearing similar things in the states