Racism in Maternal Mental Health

Our country has been shaped by racism, discrimination, and injustice since its very beginning—since this land was stolen from Indigenous people and systems of power were built to benefit some while exploiting others.

On this week of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I want to pause and reflect through a perinatal mental health lens on how racism has been embedded in both the history and the current practices of maternal health care in the United States.

One painful example lies at the foundation of modern gynecology. The man often referred to as the “Father of American Gynecology,” J. Marion Sims, was a slave owner who conducted experiments on enslaved Black women—often without anesthesia—in the name of “curing” or “fixing” gynecological conditions. These women did not consent. Their suffering was dismissed. Their bodies were used.

There was also a calculated motive behind this exploitation. After the transatlantic slave trade was banned, enslavers sought ways to increase the number of enslaved people already in the U.S. Because slavery was passed from mother to child, Black women’s reproductive capacity became a target of control and violence.

This history is not separate from the present.

Today, Black women are three to four times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period than White women. These survival rates mirror those in countries where the majority of the population lives in extreme poverty—yet this is happening in one of the wealthiest and most medically advanced nations in the world.

Recently, Dr. Janell Green Smith—a Black midwife who attended hundreds of births and was deeply committed to reducing racial disparities in maternal care—died after giving birth for the first time due to multiple complications.

How is this possible?

Because racism is not just history. It is something our medical system has been breathing in for generations.

Too often, Black mothers’ pain, intuition, and concerns are minimized or dismissed as “normal.” Symptoms are overlooked. Warnings are ignored. And the consequences are frequently devastating.

The only way to begin clearing this toxic air is to keep bringing the truth into the light: to name the history, acknowledge the harm, and speak out against the systems that continue to uphold it.

Black lives matter.

Black mothers’ lives matter.