Oklahoma group helps Black women get adequate maternity care amid high mortality rates
Imani's Village was founded in 2020 to advance infant and maternal health in Oklahoma's Black community. Farah Antoine-Mayberry
By Kolby Terrell
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OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — Black pregnant women are dying at alarmingly high rates, and many people are trying to raise awareness for the issue during Black Maternal Health Week.
Imani’s Village was founded in 2020 to advance infant and maternal health in Oklahoma’s Black community. The group’s founder said one of their main focuses is education.
“We offer a community-based doula training so that anybody who’s interested in knowing how to serve marginalized communities as a doula can participate,” Farah Antoine-Mayberry, Imani’s Village founder, said.
Fifty out of every 100,000 Black women died during pregnancy or childbirth in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number of white women who died was just 15.
Imani’s Village said it stems from a lot of different issues.
“Misconceptions about Black patients. For example, that Black people have a higher pain tolerance, that Black people have tougher skin, so when they’re asking for pain medicine, they’re easier to be dismissed or the stigma that if you have a Black patient asking for medicine, they may be drug-seeking,” Antoine-Mayberry said.
They said the solution lies in awareness and bringing in more resources for pregnant Black women, like the free doulas they provide thanks to grants and donors.
“We call them birth workers because many of them are not just doulas, they’re also childbirth educators and lactation educators, as well,” Antoine-Mayberry said.
A doula helps people through birth with education or even helping them create a birth plan.
Imani’s Village said all these different services are the key to fixing those alarming statistics, but the barrier is still awareness.
“When you start talking about things like Doula services, childbirth education and lactation services, those may feel like luxury items when really, they’re not,” Antoine-Mayberry said.
She said an awareness week for the problem shows some more recent attention toward the issue, but there is still a long way to go.
“I know that the week is called Black Maternal Health, but I encourage individuals of all racial backgrounds to hear, because we might be talking about your Black daughter-in-law or your Black cousin or your Black best friend,” Antoine-Mayberry said.
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