At Breaking the Silence on Domestic Violence, we understand what it means to be unheard. We know what it costs a person when their voice is dismissed, their pain is minimized, or their autonomy is taken from them, often within systems that were meant to keep them safe. That is why Black Maternal Health Week matters deeply to us.
A 2023 qualitative study out of the Greater Toronto Area offers a window into an experience that too many Black women know firsthand. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 24 Black women who were pregnant or had recently given birth, exploring how obstetric racism shaped their care — and what it cost them.
What women described was not a collection of minor disappointments. They spoke of feeling invisible and unheard. They described being dismissed, objectified, and denied dignity. They described paternalism, being talked over, talked past, and talked about rather than listened to. They described losing agency over their own bodies during one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.
"These experiences are not isolated. They are patterns — and patterns require structural responses, not individual apologies."
The harm does not end in the delivery room
The study found that these experiences directly undermined the quality of care Black women received. When a patient feels unseen or disrespected, that does not stay at the door of a clinic. It shapes whether she feels safe enough to ask questions, report symptoms, or return for follow-up care. It shapes whether she trusts the system at all.
The research also connects disrespectful and abusive treatment during childbirth to serious mental health consequences — including perinatal mood disorders, psychological distress, and postpartum post-traumatic stress disorder. The harm lingers. It follows women home. It shapes how they recover, how they parent, and how they relate to their own health long after birth.
For those of us who work alongside survivors of violence and trauma, this is deeply familiar territory. The loss of agency, the erasure of a person’s voice, the harm caused by systems that should protect — these themes run through the work we do every day. Black maternal health is not separate from our mission. It is woven through it.
What Black women are calling for
The women in this study did not simply name the problem — they named the path forward. They called for anti-Black racism training that is specific to perinatal care, not generic diversity workshops that sidestep how racism operates in clinical settings. They called for greater representation of Black healthcare providers in maternity care, so that women can see themselves reflected in the people caring for them. And they called for sustained investment in Black maternal health research — so that policies and interventions are built on lived experience, not assumption.
These are not abstract demands. They are practical, urgent, and long overdue.
Breaking silence requires more than awareness
Black Maternal Health Week is a moment to pay attention, but attention alone is not enough. It must push healthcare leaders, organizations, policymakers, and communities to ask harder questions: Are Black patients being listened to? Are their concerns being taken seriously the first time? Are care environments genuinely safe? Are the voices and research of Black women informing the systems that serve them?
Progress will require accountability, real investment, and a commitment to care that is not selective or conditional. It will require institutions to sit with discomfort, examine their own practices, and make changes that are specific and measurable.
Black women deserve maternity care that protects their dignity, respects their voices, and supports their health without bias or dismissal. They deserve to feel seen. They deserve to be heard — not just during one week of awareness, but every time they walk through a healthcare door.
"Black maternal health deserves attention. It deserves resources. And it deserves action that goes far beyond words."
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