1 in 5 Women Report Mistreatment During Maternity Care

What in the H E double hockey sticks is going on in US Obstetrics?!

A new survey was recently released by the CDC showing 1 in 5 women reporting being mistreated by medical professionals while receiving maternity care. 1 in 5. That’s 20% of folks receiving maternity care….and you and I both know that those numbers are significantly higher amongst persons of color-because that’s what we do here in the good ole US of A. If you’re reading my disgust and embarrassment between the lines of this post, then I am doing my job effectively. These stats are gross. And we have to do something about it, we can no longer keep up the ‘status quo’.

According to this CDC VitalSigns survey, 20% of pregnant people report instances of mistreatment during pregnancy and delivery care. Mistreatment was higher among black, Hispanic and multi-racial people as you can see from the graphic.

The most common types of mistreatments reported were:

• Receiving no response to requests for help
• Being shouted at or scolded
• Not having their physical privacy protected
• Being threatened with withholding treatment or made to accept unwanted treatment

CDC analyzed data from the Porter Novelli View Moms survey administered in English from April 24-30, 2023, to examine components of respectful care. The chart above looks at the 2042 respondents surveyed.

If you’re a birth worker, you already know this to be true and have probably witnessed this, first-hand, many times. As you can imagine, maternity care and birth satisfaction numbers are reduced amongst those who report these mistreatments.

This lends to the conversation about what these mistreatments and abuses of power are doing to pregnant people and those giving birth. We have postpartum PTSD at higher rates than ever before, and in our line of work we listen to countless stories about the things being done to women in delivery rooms across all of Michigan. We know that this is not the case for everyone and there are, in fact, some respectful medical professionals that would never dream of abusing their power in this way. However, the question becomes, how do we tell the difference between the abusers and the non? How do we get patients in front of THOSE providers and away from the rest of the medical professionals abusing their power? You can read additional details here: https://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/respectful-maternity-care/index.html

Stay tuned to the Tea With Jodi podcast for more of this conversation. Also, find your ‘doula near me’ here to help prevent these injustices in maternity care.