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Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America by Monique Rainford, MD
Whether one considers it sobering, enraging, or tragic, studies show that rates of maternal mortality among Black women in the United States are three times higher than those among their white peers. Similar gaps put Black women and their unborn children at the nation’s highest risk of numerous pregnancy-related complications.
Monique Rainford, MD ’95, an assistant professor of clinical obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences at the Yale School of Medicine, has dedicated her career to better understanding maternal–fetal health disparities in Black populations and working to reduce them.
In her book Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America, Rainford details the disproportionate risks seen in Black pregnancies. She shows that these disparities cannot be fully explained by biology, genetics, socioeconomic status, or education but rather are intertwined with institutional racism — often exhibited in subtle and unconscious forms.
Rainford weaves together research with patients’ stories as she discusses how the U.S. health care system can repair the damage of the past by changing maternal medicine today.
Harvard Medicine speaks with Rainford about the genesis of her book and her hopes for the future in this episode of The Written Word.
Note: While the interview uses the terms “mothers” and “women,” much of what is discussed applies to pregnant people who don’t identify as women.
Read the full transcript (PDF)
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Author reading
Listen to Rainford read an excerpt from the book about navigating the U.S. health care system as a Black woman:
Read the full transcript (PDF)
Reprinted with permission from Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America by Monique Rainford, MD © 2023 Broadleaf Books.
Bonus clip
Rainford weighs in on whether people respond more to stories or statistics.
Read the full transcript (PDF)
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