Baby Lifeline supported a landmark event in June 2024: the first South Asian Maternal Health Conference, organised by national law firm Irwin Mitchell and led by Geeta Nayar.
Geeta, who has lived experience of perineal injury, addressed the room at the start of the day by stating the need to improve care for South Asian women: “the time has come to look behind the statistics and call for action.”
The conference brought together people with lived experience, maternity healthcare professionals, charity representatives, legal professionals and others to discuss the experiences of South Asian women and find solutions to current inequalities in outcomes.
Keynotes from Ranee Thakar, Baroness Shaista Gohir OBE, Habib Naqvi and Arnie Puntis, and Nighat Arif discussed the need for change. Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, set the tone for the day when she asked the question, “Why are outcomes defined by where we live or the skin we wear?”
Panel sessions spotlighted on themes relevant to South Asian women’s health including perineal tears, cultural taboos surrounding baby loss, cultural sensitivity, and practical ways to improve health outcomes for South Asian women. We also heard poignant recollections from women with lived experience, and heard calls to action including:
- Overcoming language barriers and empowering women by improving health literacy
- Listening to and validating women and birthing people’s experiences
- The importance of finding solutions through co-production and working together
- Holding the government and the NHS to account: being proactive not reactive
- Empowering healthcare professionals and giving them the tools to support women.
The Baby Lifeline team were proud to attend this event, and hope that future conferences will be able to celebrate improvements in outcomes and experiences for Asian women, as well as continuing to advocate for change.
Achieving equity & equality in maternity care
The disparities in outcomes for Asian and Black women and birthing people when compared with their white counterparts are now well-documented through reports and statistics:
- Women from Asian backgrounds are almost twice as likely to die before or after childbirth as white women, and Black women are up to four times more likely to die
- Black babies have the highest mortality rates and are twice as likely to be stillborn or die within the first 28 days after birth. Asian babies are over one and a half times more likely to be stillborn or die within the first 28 days after birth when compared with White babies
- South Asian women living in a Western country are up to nine times more likely to suffer a severe perineal injury than Caucasian women
- Black and South Asian women are up to three times more likely to develop certain long-term health conditions following a diagnosis of gestational diabetes than white women
As an organisation, Baby Lifeline is committed to trying to reduce these disparities through our training and research. We have previously described gaps in training for healthcare professionals relating to cultural sensitivity, language needs, and social considerations, and called for improvements in these areas.
Equity and inequalities is discussed in many of our training courses, including recognising clinical signs on women, birthing people and babies with Black and Brown skin, and providing culturally sensitive care.