Pregnant While Black: Advancing Justice for Maternal Health in America
A tragedy is unfolding all around us and is receiving well overdue attention. Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy than their white peers. But Dr. Monique Rainford is working to better understand these disparities and do something about them.
Pregnant While Black is a hopeful exploration of the issues pregnant Black women face in America. Within these pages, Dr. Rainford draws on over twenty years of experience working in obstetrics and gynecology to offer a primer on Black pregnancies and how to better care for them. She shares the successes and testimonies of Black women who have struggled during pregnancy and childbirth, anchoring the stories of these women with carefully researched facts. Despite medical advances over the last twenty years, for Black women, the overwhelming dangers of carrying and delivering children remain and it only seems to be getting worse.
In Pregnant While Black, Rainford begins the work of "repairing the damage of the past" with an examination of the conditions that plague Black pregnancies. This important book carries the hopes and dreams of a generation looking to effect change, here and now.
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Monique Rainford, MD, is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with over twenty years' experience. An award-winning graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Medical School, she is currently an assistant professor at Yale Medicine. Her writing about maternal and other health disparities experienced by Black women has been featured in multiple publications, including Afro, Elephant Journal, and the Hartford Courant, and her broader work related to women's health and wellness has been featured in the South Florida Times, the Baltimore Sun, Thought Catalog, and the Journal of Reproductive Medicine. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and two children.
"The notorious perils for men in America of 'driving while Black' are well known; the parallel dangers to women in America of driving through a successful pregnancy while Black are far less so. With passion, compassion, and expertise, Monique Rainford exposes and explains this critical disparity, while offering the crucial guidance required to overcome it." --David L. Katz, MD, MPH, past president of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and founder and former director of Yale University's Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center
"Infused with thought-provoking narratives of real maternal-health experiences, this brilliant piece delves into the gut-wrenching facts that contribute to the Black maternal-health crisis across the nation. The strategies and solutions outlined in the text provide one with the insight needed to dismantle maternal-health disparities and inequities." --Wanda Irving, cofounder and chair of the board, Dr. Shalon's Maternal Action Project
"Pregnant While Black is the beautiful and profound expansive work on Black maternal health that we've all been waiting for. The book guides us through heartbreaking personal stories using data and evidence to help readers understand the full devastating impact of this very American crisis. Dr. Rainford invites us in to work toward a more equitable and just future for Black pregnant people." --Dr. Uché Blackstock, physician, thought leader on bias and racism in health care, and founder of Advancing Health Equity
"In her engaging book, Pregnant While Black, the brilliant obstetrician, Dr. Monique Rainford, shows that American Black women of African descent have higher risks of adverse pregnancy outcomes than other women. Her powerful evidence shows that disheartening disparities suffered by Black pregnant women arise not so much from genetic inheritance but more from epigenetic predispositions as the result of generations of racism, inadequate diets, and chronic environmental stress. Nevertheless, Rainford offers encouraging hope for reversing these disparities over the next generation." --Kent Thornburg, PhD, M. Lowell Edwards Chair of Cardiovascular Research and professor of medicine, Oregon Health & Science University
"This is a scholarly work that is factually detailed yet presented through the personal perspective that Dr. Rainford brings to the problem. It a is must-read for anyone interested in eliminating disparities, as medicine serves as a model for all aspects of human existence. Dr. Rainford gives us a clear path forward." --Hugh S. Taylor, MD, Anita O'Keeffe Young Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine; chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Yale-New Haven Hospital
"Dr. Monique Rainford brings knowledge, precision, and more than two decades of experience as an OB-GYN to her book Pregnant While Black. As a Black woman, she confronts the complicated crisis of maternal mortality in America with compassion, empathy, and heartfelt storytelling." --Linda Villarosa, author of Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation
