Closing Keynote - The Deep South Initiative: Envisioning Our Midwifery Future Through Strategy and Policy

keynote address

DATE: Sunday, November 10th
TIME: 1:45 pm - 2:45 pm
FACULTY: Tanya Smith-Johnson, MS, CPM

The maternal health crisis in the United States isn't improving. In fact since COVID, disparities have increased especially for Black birthing people. The dominant explanation for this trend of increased mortality and morbidity is racism, not race. With the United States being the country with the highest per capita spending for maternal care in the world , but with one of the worst world rankings, creative and strategic measures must be taken.

The regions with the worst maternal health outcomes for Black birthing people is the Deep South, the region with the largest Black populations but with maternal health outcomes comparable to third world countries . People who are pregnant and living in the Deep South in states such as Louisiana , Mississippi and Alabama have the worst outcomes in this region and country. These states also have been ravaged by hospital closures, the lack of investment in Medicaid, social services and recruitment of providers. These states have huge rural populations and several counties with no hospitals, OBGYNS or midwives. Investment in midwifery and the midwifery model of care has proven to be a solution to the devastating maternal health crisis seen in the United States. States of the former confederacy are the same states that have decimated the health, wellbeing and social fabric of Black communities since the days of Slavery. Divestment in Medicaid, reluctance to fix provider shortages and the eradication of Black midwives have all contributed to the current maternal health data and statistics we see in the present. There is no coincidence that the states with the worst outcomes were the states that eradicated the Black midwifery workforce while having the largest enslaved populations in the Nation. By showing the correlation between policies and practices of the Deep South, current outcomes and the state of Black maternal and infant health, an argument can be made for how we turn the tide. By investing in midwifery education, policy and the maternal health pipeline, we can not only improve outcomes for the Deep South but for Black birthing people and families in the United States at large.

Faculty