Black Maternal Health Week Fact Sheet

Apr 15, 2026News

April 11–17, 2026

The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg is committed to elevating quality maternal and child health as one of its 2026 advocacy priorities. In honor of Black Maternal Health Week, we offer this guide highlighting the stark and dangerous disparities Black women face during and after pregnancy and childbirth.

Black women in the United States are dying from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes at rates that have no parallel in any other wealthy nation — and at rates that have no medical justification. The data is not a footnote. It reveals a decades-long pattern of preventable loss that persists across income and education levels and is rooted in the compounding weight of structural inequality impacting Black women’s bodies, lives, and access to dignified care. Here in Florida, that pattern is alive and urgent.

NATIONAL SNAPSHOT: A CRISIS BY THE NUMBERS

• Triple the Mortality Rate: Black women die from pregnancy-related causes at more than three times the rate of white women nationally.
• 44.8 Deaths per 100,000 vs 14.2: In 2024, Black women suffered 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the CDC, compared to 14.2 deaths for white women.
•  Most Deaths are Preventable: More than 80%+ of pregnancy-related deaths in the United States are considered preventable by the CDC.

THE REAL-LIFE IMPACT & IMPLICATIONS

• Disparities Transcend Education and Income: Black women with college degrees die at higher rates during pregnancy than white women who never finished high school — meaning education and income do not protect Black women from this crisis.
• Maternal Morbidity Gaps Also Impact Health: Black women are significantly more likely to develop preeclampsia, experience hemorrhage, and suffer cardiac events during pregnancy — even after controlling for pre-existing conditions.
• Trends Suggest a Widening Gap: If current trends continue, the Black maternal mortality rate could nearly double to 94 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2040, placing the U.S. on par with low-income countries (McKinsey Health Institute, 2025).
• These Gaps Are Costly: In 2025, maternal health conditions are projected to cost Black women 350,000 healthy life years — from disability and chronic illness connected to pregnancy complications (McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility, 2025).
• Black Babies Are Affected, Too: Nationally, Black infants are more than twice as likely to die before their first birthday as compared with white infants (KFF, 2025).

FLORIDA: PERSISTENT DISPARITIES, GROWING CONCERNS

Florida’s overall maternal mortality rate sits at approximately 18.5 deaths per 100,000 live births — slightly below the national average. But that number obscures a much more troubling story for Black women and families in this state.

• Infant Mortality Inequities: Black babies in Florida are nearly three times more likely to die before their first birthday than white babies (Florida Dept. of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics, 2022).
• Rising Mortality Rates: Florida’s mortality rates for Black women rose sharply in 2023, the same year a federal judge found the state illegally terminated Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands of Floridians, including pregnant and postpartum women (WLRN, 2026).
• Preterm Birth Gaps: 10.7% of babies born in Florida in 2024 were preterm — and preterm births are the leading driver of infant mortality and disproportionately affect Black mothers (March of Dimes, 2025).
• Inadequate Prenatal Care: 20.8% of birthing mothers in Florida received inadequate prenatal care — higher than the national rate of 14.8% — with women of color disproportionately affected (March of Dimes Maternity Care Deserts Report, 2023).

ADDITIONAL FLORIDA CONTEXT

• Maternity Care Deserts: Nearly 20% of Florida counties have been designated maternity care deserts, with more than 10% of Florida women having no birthing hospital within 30 minutes of their home.
• Lack of Insurance: 1 in 7 women of childbearing age in Florida (15%) is uninsured — a rate that compounds barriers to prenatal and postpartum care for Black women already navigating systemic inequities. (March of Dimes, 2023)
• Public Health Investments Matter: Research using Florida county-level data found that every 10% increase in pregnancy-related public health spending was associated with a 13.5% decline in maternal mortality rates among Black mothers and a 20% reduction in the Black-white disparity — evidence that investment works (PMC, 2020).

ROOT CAUSES: THIS IS NOT BIOLOGY. THIS IS SYSTEMIC.

The disparities Black women face in pregnancy and childbirth are not explained by genetics, individual behavior, or personal circumstance. Research consistently points to the following systemic and structural drivers:

• Chronic stress from racism — known as “weathering” — accelerates biological aging in Black women and increases the risk of preterm labor, hypertension, and pregnancy complications.
• Implicit racial bias in clinical settings leads to Black women’s pain being undertreated, symptoms being dismissed, and concerns being ignored by providers.
• Gaps in insurance coverage and high out-of-pocket costs prevent timely access to prenatal care, specialist referrals, and postpartum follow-up.
• Maternity care deserts and hospital closures disproportionately affect predominantly Black communities in both rural and urban Florida.
• Policies that restrict reproductive health care further reduce care options and delay treatment for Black women already navigating limited access.

 

Disparities like these can be changed when we work together with intention and strategy. After all, people built the systems that create the outcomes we see. So people have the power to change them, together.

 

Sources: CDC/NCHS Maternal Mortality Reports (2023, 2024, released 2025–2026); McKinsey Health Institute (2025); KFF Racial Disparities in Maternal & Infant Health (2025); March of Dimes PeriStats & Maternity Care Deserts Report (2023–2024); WLRN Investigative Report (April 2026); Florida Dept. of Health Bureau of Vital Statistics; PMC — Maternal Mortality and Public Health Programs: Evidence from Florida (2020).