“I Felt Like I Wasn’t Being Heard” – Black Maternal Health Disparities in the Spotlight

REDWOOD CITY - Jessica Castaneda was 33 weeks pregnant with twins when the fear crept in.

"I kept telling the nurse something wasn't right," Castaneda said. "I was scared, and I felt like I wasn't being heard."

That moment of fear and dismissal is one many Black mothers say is all too familiar. And it set the stage for a recent community discussion where mothers like Castaneda shared their experiences alongside medical professionals, advocates and community members.

San Mateo County Supervisor Lisa Gauthier hosted the program in downtown Redwood City to highlight an urgent public health crisis: the disproportionate risks Black women face during pregnancy, childbirth and afterward.

"These disparities are not about income or education," Gauthier said. "They are the result of structural inequities and a health care system that too often fails to hear, believe and protect Black mothers."

Nationally, Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Clinicians and researchers point to unequal care, medical bias and the long-term effects of chronic stress tied to systemic racism, a phenomenon known as "weathering."

The program featured a screening of The Risk of Giving Birth, a PBS documentary examining Black maternal and infant health disparities.

The film weaves together the experiences of families with insights from medical experts, researchers, midwives and doulas to examine why Black women in the United States continue to face disproportionately high risks during pregnancy and childbirth.

After the screening, attendees heard from the film's executive producer, Stacy Waters, and postdoctoral research fellow Kendria Kelly-Taylor, who discussed the structural inequities and health-system gaps that drive disparities.

"There is not one problem. It is the most complex set of problems I've ever had to get my head around," Waters said. "All the film can do is bring it to your attention, shine a light on it, and hope it sparks conversation."

"There are a lot of implicit biases that are ingrained and entrenched within the medical setting," Kelly-Taylor said. "We kind of anticipate that Black women will have these disproportionate outcomes, and that expectation itself is part of the problem."

She added, "If there's one change I wish we could make immediately, it would be expanding mental health care in pregnancy and the first year postpartum. Right now, support often drops off after about eight weeks, but postpartum recovery doesn't end there. It goes far beyond that."

The program was hosted in partnership with San Mateo County Health's Black Infant Health program.

Dr. Anand Chabra, a maternal and child health leader with San Mateo County Health, said the data shows the gaps remain persistent even after decades of intervention.

"This is the call to action for all of us," he said. "We each have a role to play in addressing these disparities through collective action."

Gauthier said the goal is to change how health systems respond to Black mothers.

"Awareness alone is not enough," she said. "We must move from conversation to accountability, and from data to action that improves outcomes for Black mothers and babies."

She added that the experiences shared throughout the evening highlight the urgency of that work.

"What we heard tonight is why this matters," Gauthier said. "These are real families, real experiences, and real consequences when the system fails to listen."

Take Castaneda, who is 31 and works as a certified medical assistant.

"I work in the system, and I still felt unheard. That was the most striking part for me," she said.

"When I first checked into the hospital, I felt like my concerns were being dismissed," she said. "From that point on, I knew I was going to have to advocate for myself throughout the rest of the process."

Her twin boys, Harlem and Hudson, now five months old, were bundled in white and blue blankets in a stroller nearby.

"I think it's really important as a Black woman to advocate for yourself in the labor and delivery setting," Castaneda said. "If something doesn't feel right, you need to speak up."

Vanessa Smith
Office of Supervisor Lisa Gauthier
(650) 599-1009
[email protected]