Live From New York...Week 45

AHCJ24, Black maternal health and chocolate ice cream

I’m in New York City at the Association for Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) annual meeting. I received a California Health Journalism fellowship. This has been an amazing meeting. Here it is Sunday evening and I’m exhausted so I’ll just share a few notes.

Maternal Health

I caught two panels on Black maternal health. We have a huge inequity in America with much higher death rates for Black women in pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum than for white, Hispanic or Asian women. According to the most recent statistics available from the National Center for Health Statistics:

In 2022 the maternal mortality rate for Black women was 49.5 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is higher than rates for white (19.0), Hispanic (16.9), and Asian (13.2) women.

Right after the birth of my oldest son, who is 20 now, I coauthored a book called Fearless Pregnancy: Wisdom and Reassurance from a Doctor, A Midwife and a Mom. We gained a bit of a cult following — hey, I know women in Brooklyn and a few other places who loved us! — but the book sales paled in comparison to What to Expect When You’re Expecting (notice that I’m not hyperlinking. I’m still bitter:)). I recall my publisher telling me that the buyer at Barnes & Noble didn’t like our book partly because we talked a lot about midwives and doulas. I guess she thought this was weird. Now, all this time later, guess what I kept hearing at this heavy hitter health journalism conference? Yep, many advocates say working with midwives and doulas is seen as part of the solution to the inequity problem. But, actually, it’s not just any midwife or doula. It’s culturally competent midwives and doulas. Plus OB/GYNs should not be let off the hook. They need to be culturally competent too. So If I were writing that pregnancy book today I’d include all this. Plus I’d tell everyone about Irth, a new Yelp-like app for Black parents to find culturally competent medical providers, and She Matters, a digital health platform focused on supporting Black moms.

Far left is Kimberly Seals Allers, founder of Irth. Second from right is Jade Kearney, founder of She Matters.

The bottom line is that we have to do better and thankfully there some pretty amazing health pioneers out there leading the charge.

Methlands

I’m beginning to think that — sadly! — all places are methlands maybe or maybe all writers come from places that are?? Waterloo, Iowa — where I grew up— is prominently featured in the book Methland, but NYT luminary and Pulitzer Prize winner Nicholas Kristof, who delivered the keynote at AHCJ24, is apparently also from a methland. Albeit a rural Oregon one. His new book Chasing Hope: A Reporter’s Life dives into this and more. I didn’t buy a copy of his book at the conference because I don’t have enough room in my suitcase. But I will when I return home. Also, Kristof said he plans to write next about cervical cancer. Hooray! — anything that draws more attention to women’s health.

Chocolate Ice Cream

Lastly, I thought you should know that it was national chocolate ice cream day this week. Gabe and I celebrated properly at a place near Radio City Music Hall. If you missed out, I’m extending a grace period. Hurry up…go have some chocolate ice cream! I think we’re going to head out and celebrate again. I’m blaming it on all that talk about pregnancy.

Pregnancy. Ice cream. The subjects just go together.