On day one of the HLTH Conference in Boston, Dr. Neel Shah, chief medical officer of Maven, was joined by Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley, CEO of Power to Decide and Ebony Marcelle, the Director of Midwifery at Community of Hope for a discussion about what steps can be taken to advance birth equity in the United States. The panel was moderated by Geralyn Ritter, head of external affairs and ESG at Organon.
Pathways to birth equity
The state of maternal health in the United States is dire. The U.S. is the only industrialized nation where maternal mortality rates are rising on an annual basis. Today, an American woman is 50% more likely to die in childbirth than her own mother a generation ago. Maternal and infant health is also riddled with inequity, with Black women being 3-4 times more likely than white women to die in childbirth, and Black infants twice as likely to die before their first birthday than white infants.
The panelists discussed how these crises could not be solved by taking a siloed approach to what ultimately was a systemic issue, underpinned by racism and a long history of the healthcare community under-serving Black patients. Rather, to build a more trustworthy system for birthing people, it requires listening to and elevating Black voices — both patients and providers — and investing and training a culturally humble provider workforce.
“How a person experiences healthcare is very different from how we in healthcare think it is experienced,” said Marcelle. “We need to talk about the individuals providing care, the spaces where patients are receiving care, and acknowledge the distrust is real.”
Dr. Shah agreed: “It’s not the job of patients to be more trusting. It’s our job as a system to become more trustworthy.”
Dr. McDonald-Moseley spoke about the Black Maternal Health Momnibus, a suite of 12 legislative proposals currently being debated on Capitol Hill that would direct $5 billion toward community-based health initiatives, digital health programs, and other initiatives to advance maternal health equity. While she acknowledged that the package wouldn’t solve America’s maternal health crisis on its own, it represents a significant step forward. Quite simply, “the bill makes sense.” For individuals looking to play a role in advancing health equity for mothers and children, calling your representative to encourage their support of the bill was a good place to start, she said.
At Maven, Dr. Shah shared how 40 percent of our providers self-identify as BIPOC, and 8 percent as LGBTQ, which allows members to request to be matched with providers that bring both the necessary technical expertise and unique lived experience.
“We’re not checking a box at Maven when it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” he said. “We’re thinking about how to deploy digital health to change who is centered in healthcare.
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