Black babies are more likely to survive during childbirth when under the care of black doctors, a US study has found.
Last year, research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed black babies are more than twice as likely to die before reaching their first birthday than white babies, regardless of the mother’s income or education level.
Now, a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that the race of the attending doctor is instrumental in determining whether a black baby survives during childbirth.
By examining 1.8m hospital birth records in Florida from 1992 to 2015, researchers determined the race of each doctor in charge of a newborn's care.
When black babies were cared for by white doctors, they were three times more likely to die in hospital than white newborns - yet when treated by a black doctor, that number halved.
Additionally, the greatest drop in deaths happened in complex births, and in hospitals delivering more black babies, which suggests institutional factors could play a role.
However, the study did not find any statistically significant correlation between the risk of maternal mortality, which is higher for black and brown women, and the race of the mother's doctor.
For white newborns, the race of their doctor makes little difference to their chances of survival, in contrast to black newborns.
Despite such findings, black women seeking a black doctor for their baby are likely to struggle, as only 5 per cent of doctors are black, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Unconscious racism towards black women and their babies could in part explain the study's findings.
Contrastingly, race concordance enhances communication and trust between doctor and mother, and black doctors may be more attuned to social risk factors and disadvantages which impact neonatal care.
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