Black women still face maternity discrimination in hospitals, according to a new enquiry.
A study by Five X More, a Black maternal health charity, found that Black women still felt their race, ethnicity, age or class affected their care.
Its survey of over 1,300 Black and Black mixed women found 61% who had a miscarriage or early pregnancy loss, were not offered additional support to cope with the outcome.
A third of respondents were concerned about the care they received from their midwife during the birth recovery period.
And during labour, 36% of women said they felt dissatisfied with how concerns were addressed.
Five X More co-founder, Tinuke Awe, says the study was inspired by seeing maternal reports released with black women not being the focus.
“I remember the Minister for Patient Safety and Primary Care said they have a call for evidence about women's health. And she was disappointed that the data from black women were underrepresented.
“Their petition debate was about black women's maternal outcomes, but you can't seem to find them to take part in these really important pieces of research. We just thought enough is enough. Essentially, let's show you how it's done,” she said.
Jayde Tanisha Edwards, a mother who took part in the study, says she was continuously ignored by medical professionals during her first pregnancy.
Ms Edwards says the combination of being a young black mother in care made her experience more troubling.
“I don't want to just put it down to the fact that I'm coloured, but my age and the fact that I'm of colour, did impact my care”, Ms Edwards said.
“The first thing they say when you go in is, ‘why is your partner not here?’ It's a typical black woman who doesn't have her partner here, comes from a broken home and on top of that, is in the social care system”, she said
Ms Edwards, who was just 15 at the time of her pregnancy, said she repeatedly told midwives she was in pain but was continuously ignored.
She said: “I remember being in labour and I was saying to the midwife ‘I'm in pain’ and she's like ‘you are only three centimetres dilated.’
“I was laying there for ages in pain. They finally called somebody else. And the lady said, 'oh, you're seven centimetres dilated'. And at that point, I couldn't have any medication, any epidural or anything", she said.
Ms Edwards was admitted to the hospital at 9 PM but did not give birth until 7 AM.
She said she lay in pain for hours until the birth of her son and believes her experience is not one of a kind.
“I know I'm not the only not just black, but a young parent that goes through that experience”, she said.
Ms Awe said the most shocking find from the survey was the demographics of women who participated.
She said: “Historically, they said it was socioeconomic status that was the reason for high statistics. That Black women are poor and their bodies are rubbish. That is why they have these poor outcomes.”
“But we found that the majority of women that took part in our study earned above the national average, they were degree level educated and more, and also married or in relationships at the time of the study. It just completely refutes everything that everybody has said", she said.
“It almost reminds me of Serena Williams. If she can have a poorer outcome as one of the richest black women in the world, what does that say about the rest of us?."
The charity listed five solutions they hope the government can implement in their plan to help Black women have better maternity care.
These included an annual maternity survey targeted at Black women, more community-based approaches to improve maternal outcomes, an improved system for women to submit their feedback, improvements on the quality of Ethnic coding in health records and ensuring individuals involved in training health care professionals are aware of the disparities in maternity care.
Ms Awe said the suggestions were simple enough for the government to implement them now.
"Sometimes, you get a report that has 30 recommendations and things are attainable but we hope that the things we've asked for are quick and easy and things that can be done now and not in five, ten or fifteen years.
"We hope that government officials read our report, look at those recommendations and see what they can do.
"We will be pressing on because again, as I said, they are not hard asks", she said.
Ms Awe also raised concerns on the Maternity Disparities Taskforce, which was launched in February this year, to explore inequalities in maternity care.
"Are they working with community groups? Are you actually working with the very people that need the help?”
She added: “Because if you're making decisions amongst yourself and you're not consulting the people who the changes will affect, you will affect nothing."
The Mirror have asked the Department of Health and Social Care for comment.
