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Contact your Legislator to act on VA Maternal Mortality Crisis
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Subject
Message
(PLEASE ADD PERSONAL STORY OF EXPERIENCED BIAS HERE) Virginia has a maternal mortality crisis. According to the Virginia Maternal Mortality Review Team Triennial Report, Virginia’s maternal mortality rate (pregnancy associated deaths) more than doubled between 2018 and 2020, from 37.1 deaths to 86.6 deaths per 100,000. According to that report, Black women continue to experience higher pregnancy associated deaths than their White counterparts, a trend that has been documented in Virginia since 2004. Despite our best intentions, we all have biases, they are a part of how we think. Unconscious bias has long been identified as a factor contributing to lower health care quality for Black Americans. In their 2017 report, Unconscious Bias in Academic Medicine: How the Prejudices We Don’t Know We Have Affect Medical Education, Medical Careers, and Patient Health, the American Association of Medical Colleges found that patient care can improve when physicians explore their own biases and that evidence shows that interventions can reverse unconscious bias. Better patient care=healthier moms. Healthy moms=healthy babies. We call upon you to work with your General Assembly Colleagues to pass a bill that requires evidence based training in unconscious bias and cultural competency for all healthcare professionals licensed by the Board of Nursing and the Board of Medicine. Thank you for your commitment to improving maternity care in Virginia for all.
