LOS ANGELES – SheMatters.health, a website dedicated black women suffering from postpartum anxiety or depression, has launched “The Black Mothers’ Pink Book,” an online guide to the safest hospitals for pregnant black women to have their babies.
Meant to coincide with the Juneteenth celebration this year, the book was established to reduce the instance of infant mortality and maternal deaths in black communities. Infant mortality is about four times as high as those for black children as they are for white children, according to 2020 statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control.
Moreover, maternal deaths—those occurring between six weeks and one year postpartum—were about 3.5 times more likely among black women than white women, a 2021 study published in the American Journal of Public Health showed. Postpartum cardiomyopathy was reportedly the leading cause of late maternal death among all races, with Black women having a six-times-higher risk than white women, the study said.
As a result of these growing statistics, the new book aims to give black mothers-to-be the opportunity to find a safe facility for them to give birth and receive postpartum care.
“Personally, I gave birth to both of my daughters at Morristown Hospital in New Jersey, but I live in Harlem, NY,” wrote Jade Kearney, the book’s co author, who is also the CEO and Founder of SheMatters.org. “I knew that my chances of maternal morbidity and infant mortality were substantially decreased by crossing the George Washington Bridge.”
Kearney and She Matters’ Co-Founder Marguerite Pierce, wrote the book to give black mothers and mothers-to-be a better chance at surviving giving birth and postpartum depression. The book includes a map that lists the safest hospitals across 14 states with the largest African-American populations in the United States.
To access the map, click here.
“We hope this empowers Black Women and their families with the information they need to take on one of the most important journeys, bringing life into the world,” Kearney said.
The book, she said, was inspired in part by “The Green Book,” a publication dating back to the Jim Crow segregation era that served as a travel guide by African-American motorists so they could travel across the U.S. safely. It offered suggestions on where to eat, sleep and fill up your gas tank in both Northern and Southern States.
