{"id":34839,"date":"2026-10-05T10:23:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T14:23:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=34839"},"modified":"2026-10-05T09:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T13:40:24","slug":"black-people-at-higher-risk-of-severe-complications-during-pregnancy-labor-and-postpartum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2026\/10\/black-people-at-higher-risk-of-severe-complications-during-pregnancy-labor-and-postpartum\/","title":{"rendered":"Black people at higher risk of severe complications during pregnancy, labor, and postpartum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Black people in Canada have an increased risk of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) \u2014\u00a0serious complications that can occur during pregnancy, labour or delivery, and postpartum \u2014\u00a0compared with White people, according to new research published in CMAJ<\/em> (Canadian Medical Association Journal<\/em>) https:\/\/www.cmaj.ca\/lookup\/doi\/10.1503\/cmaj.252020<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Severe maternal morbidity includes life-threatening conditions such as preeclampsia, hemorrhage, sepsis, heart conditions, uterine rupture, kidney failure, and more<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Researchers conducted a study looking at the differences in SMM between Black and White people in Canada. The national study included data on almost 1.5\u00a0million births, including 108\u00a0805\u00a0to Black people and 1\u00a0388\u00a0090\u00a0to White people, from 2012\u00a0to 2023. Data were from Canada\u2019s 2021\u00a0long-form Census, linked to national birth, hospitalization, immigration, and tax information databases in all provinces and territories, excluding Quebec.<\/p>\n

The rate of SMM was 47.8\u00a0per 1000\u00a0among Black people compared with 27.7\u00a0per 1000\u00a0among White people. After accounting for differences in sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, Black people had a 66% increased risk of experiencing SMM compared with White people. Rates were consistently higher among Black people across all types of SMM studied.<\/p>\n

Importantly, differences in income and immigration did not explain the disparity. Black people had higher rates of SMM than White people across income levels and among both immigrant and nonimmigrant populations. The findings were also consistent when researchers excluded people with preeclampsia-related conditions, sickle cell disease and HIV \u2014 conditions that occur at different rates in Black and White populations and could potentially have contributed to the overall disparity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing Black is not a cause of severe pregnancy complications. Race is a social rather than biological construct<\/strong>, and the higher rates of severe maternal morbidity observed among Black people should not be interpreted as reflecting inherent biological differences,\u201d says Dr.\u00a0Giulia Muraca, perinatal epidemiologist and associate professor in the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Health Research Methods, Evidence & Impact, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. \u201cThe findings point instead to the need for further investigation of social, structural, and health care factors that may contribute to inequities in maternal health.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study, which links population-level health records with self-reported race, was conducted through CanHEAL (the Canadian network for Health Equity using Advanced Data Linkage), in partnership with the Black Reproductive Health Working Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur results are consistent with a broader body of evidence that structural and systemic factors, including anti-Black racism, contribute to inequities in maternal health. Prior research has documented experiences of dismissal, objectification, and inequitable care among Black people in diverse health care settings.\u201d write Dr.\u00a0Muraca and co-authors.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack race is not a biological risk factor for severe pregnancy complications,\u201d says Dr.\u00a0Cynthia Maxwell, co-lead of The Black Reproductive Health Working Group in Ontario, maternal fetal medicine specialist at Women\u2019s College Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital, and professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Toronto. \u201cWhen these inequities persist across income levels, immigration groups, and different medical conditions, we need to ask what it is about our health and social systems that is producing different outcomes. Black communities need to be part of answering that question and shaping the solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

To address these inequities, the authors suggest responsible collection and use of race information in health data, public reporting of race-disaggregated data, accountability to track progress and sustain improvements, antiracism training, and partnerships with Black communities to co-design programs to ensure access to high-quality care in pregnancy through the postpartum period.<\/p>\n

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JOURNAL<\/h4>\n

Canadian Medical Association Journal<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Black people in Canada have an increased risk of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) \u2014\u00a0serious complications that can occur during pregnancy, labour or delivery, and postpartum \u2014\u00a0compared with White people, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https:\/\/www.cmaj.ca\/lookup\/doi\/10.1503\/cmaj.252020. Severe maternal morbidity includes life-threatening conditions such as preeclampsia, hemorrhage, sepsis, heart conditions, uterine… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34840,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1164,1037,356,10,9,914],"tags":[78,1165,842,863,379],"class_list":["post-34839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birth","category-children","category-genetics-2","category-health","category-parenting","category-race","tag-babies","tag-black","tag-canada","tag-medical","tag-pregnancy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34841,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34839\/revisions\/34841"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}