Growing up as a black girl in St. Louis was not good for my health. Through my work at Generate Health, understanding the health outcomes of black women, particularly in St. Louis, has shed light on my own fertility struggle. My personal story of infertility was a traumatic reality my husband and I were forced to face. We as a region need to understand the disturbing impact that living in St. Louis has on the health of black women.
St. Louis is the sixth-most segregated metro area in the U.S., which makes it a particularly difficult place to be born black.
Blacks in St. Louis have a 20-year difference in life expectancy compared to whites. We are the fourth-worst city for unequal unemployment – 21 percent of unemployed residents are black, compared to just 6 percent who are white. Black families represent 80 percent of public transit riders, and only one in four jobs in the region are reachable by a 90-minute or less public transit trip. One in four black people are food-insecure in the city of St. Louis. One in four black people have severe housing problems, including overcrowding, high housing costs, lack of kitchen or plumbing, and/or other challenging living conditions.
The saddest part about these statistics is that far too many people have no idea that these disparities exist – or that our moms and babies are suffering because of them.
FLOURISH St. Louis, an initiative powered by Generate Health, is working to reduce infant mortality in St. Louis and wants to fix the systems that impact our health. For example, more than one in three black women in the city of St. Louis receive inadequate prenatal care because of community barriers. A mom may have to choose between working her hourly job and taking time to go to the doctor, which puts her at risk for not being able to pay the utility bill this month. She may spend two hours on a bus each way to get to the doctor, and if the bus is late she could miss her appointment and have to wait weeks to get another.
The chronic stress our black moms experience is killing them and their babies. Moms facing ongoing stress, like too many of those living in St. Louis, often go into preterm labor and are at risk for complications due to hypertension, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses that can affect long-term health outcomes.
Over the past several decades, the gap between the death rates of white babies and black babies continued to grow – regardless of the mother’s socioeconomic status. Black women who are lawyers, doctors, or engineers have higher rates of infant mortality than white women who didn’t finish college, according to the Harvard School of Public Health. And black women are 243 percent more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
We are in the midst of Black Maternal Health Week, but this can’t be a topic we discuss for only one week out of the year. The health of black moms and babies must be at the forefront of every decision made by us and our elected officials, especially in regards to our health systems, our public housing policies, and our transportation providers. Our daughters, and our daughters’ children, deserve so much better.
Rose Anderson-Rice is chief program director at Generate Health.
