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Building and supporting a black midwifery workforce in Oklahoma: findings and recommendations from an expedited review
Building and supporting a black midwifery workforce in Oklahoma: findings and recommendations from an expedited review
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Urban Institute research report
- Author(s):
- Allen, Eva H., author
Taylor, Kimá Joy, author
Porter, Zara, author
Ford, LesLeigh, author
Mitchell, Faith, author - Contributor(s):
- Health Policy Center (Urban Institute), issuing body.
Urban Institute, issuing body. - Publication:
- Washington, DC : Urban Institute, April 2022
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Black or African American -- statistics & numerical data
Education, Professional -- organization & administration
Health Equity -- economics
Health Policy
Health Workforce -- organization & administration
Maternal-Child Health Services -- supply & distribution
Midwifery -- economics
Social Mobility
Oklahoma - Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- Oklahoma’s maternal health system is in crisis. Mothers in Oklahoma are at a higher risk of dying before, during, or after giving birth than mothers nationwide. Between 2017 and 2019, Oklahoma recorded 23.5 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births; this compares with a national average of 20.1 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 2019. The maternal mortality rate for Black mothers in Oklahoma stood at 40.8 per 100,000 live births in the same period, meaning Black mothers were 1.6 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related conditions than white mothers. Oklahoma also experiences severe maternity care provider shortages, with obstetricians sometimes seeing as many as 50 patients a day and more than half of counties having no birthing hospitals, birth centers, or maternity care providers. Seven in 10 pregnancy-related deaths in Oklahoma were found to be preventable, suggesting that improving access to and the quality of maternity care could help lower the risk of death among new mothers. Evidence shows that women with healthy pregnancies who receive care from midwives, which includes patient-centered and holistic care that promotes natural birth, have better maternal and infant outcomes at a lower cost than women who receive traditional physician- and hospital-based maternity care. However, access to midwifery care in Oklahoma is limited, especially for populations most at risk for poor maternal health outcomes. Currently, Oklahoma has roughly 2 midwives for every 1,000 births, and most of them are white. More than half of all births in Oklahoma are covered by Medicaid, but midwives attend less than 3 percent of these births. Expanding and diversifying the midwifery workforce could help address maternity care provider shortages and improve access to high-quality, evidence-based, and culturally effective maternity care. We conducted a review of publicly available information and key informant interviews to examine the feasibility of launching a midwifery education program in the state focused on training Black midwives. Our findings indicate that midwifery in Oklahoma does not have broad recognition and support from the public or the medical establishment.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Extent:
- 1 online resource (1 PDF file (vi, 53 pages))
- NLM Unique ID:
- 9918486682706676 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918486682706676