Woman's Hour

Black women in Britain are now five times more likely to die during pregnancy, birth or postpartum than white women. This is according to the latest study from MBRRACE-UK (Mothers and Babies: Reducing Risk through Audits and Confidential Enquiries across the UK). And the risk has been increasing year on year. On today’s Woman’s Hour we concentrate on these disturbing statistics – released late last year, but receiving very little attention.We discuss why this could be happening with Elsie Gayle, an independent midwife and nurse with 30 years’ experience in the NHS; Daghni Rajasingham, a consultant obstetrician who speaks for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Jenny Douglas, the founder and chair of the Black Women’s Health and Well Being Research Network and a senior lecturer at the Open University; and Mars Lord, a doula.We also hear the birth experiences of some of the many women who contacted us, and are joined in the studio by Remi Sade, a writer and podcaster, and Candice Brathwaite,