Khiara Bridges, "Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans" (MIT Press, 2026)
About this episode
The episode explores the impact of racism in maternal healthcare on affluent Black women in the US.
An unsettling exploration of the persistence of racism in reproductive healthcare in the US—and why even affluent Black women are imperiled by substandard care.From a leading expert on race, class, maternal health, and reproductive rights.Racism in maternal healthcare is not reserved for the poor. An unsparing picture of inequities in prenatal care and childbirth in the United States, Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans (MIT Press, 2026) reveals that not only are black people three to four times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause, but racial disparities in maternal mortality persist across income levels. That is, wealthier black people are much more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth, or the postpartum period than their white counterparts. Focusing on a San Francisco obstetrics clinic that caters to the affluent, Khiara Bridges looks at the choices around prenatal care and childbirth that class-privileged, pregnant black people are making in order to survive what has been called the “black maternal health crisis.”Bridges, whose previous work exposed how race and racism are…
People in this episode
Guest: Khiara Bridges
Topics covered
- maternal health
- racism
- reproductive healthcare
- inequities
- Black Americans
- class privilege
Keywords
- maternal mortality
- healthcare disparities
- Black maternal health
- reproductive rights
- prenatal care
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: MIT Press
Books & works: Expecting Inequity: How the Maternal Health Crisis Affects Even the Wealthiest Black Americans
Places: United States, San Francisco
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