Statement in response to the Westminster Hall debate, Black Maternal Health Awareness Week 2025

Responding to the Westminster Hall debate on Black Maternal Health Awareness Week, 2025, Rini Jones, Senior Policy & Delivery Manager and Arnie Puntis, Senior Research and Policy Manager, NHS Race and Health Observatory, said:

“On Tuesday 29 April, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP secured a Westminster Hall debate on Black Maternal Health Awareness Week. The NHS Race and Health Observatory (NHS RHO) commends Ms Ribeiro-Addy, Five X More, and countless community-led organisations for their tireless advocacy in spotlighting the stark inequity that exists for Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic families in maternity care.

“We are concerned that Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care, Dr Caroline Johnson MP, while citing her experience as an NHS consultant paediatrician, repeatedly denied and questioned the existence of institutional racism in the NHS, instead attributing discriminatory practice to a “few bad apples.” This is troubling, given the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

“Our rapid evidence review explains how institutional racism, where racism is enshrined in an organisation’s policies and practices, manifests in the NHS. We have clearly outlined how institutional racism leads to ethnic health inequity in access to, experience of, and outcomes of healthcare (NHS RHO, 2022).

“In maternity and neonatal care specifically (NHS RHO, 2023; Knight et al., 2022), institutional racism can manifest in NHS providers’:

• Disbelief or minimisation of Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic women’s pain leading to the denial of appropriate interventions and pain relief during labour and birth.
• Failure to provide interpretation services leading to a lack of choice, understanding, and informed consent regarding maternity procedures.
• Use of visual skin colour assessments, tools, and devices developed and tested on White European babies leading to missed, life-saving diagnoses for Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic babies.

“The ethnic diversity of the NHS workforce does not preclude the existence of institutional racism or minimise the damage it causes to staff and patient safety. Year on year, findings from the NHS Staff Survey and the NHS Workforce Race Equality Standard indicate how institutional racism impacts minoritised ethnic healthcare professionals. This includes increased rates of bullying and harassment, stark pay and progression disparities, and the disproportionately higher likelihood of being taken through formal disciplinary processes (NHS WRES, 2024).

“We commend Ashley Dalton MP, Minister for Public Health and Prevention, for clearly recognising and asserting the need for systemic equity in the NHS and for sustained action to tackle racism in the design and delivery of maternity care. We remain firmly committed to working with communities, system partners, and the government to deliver equitable maternity care for Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic families.

“The NHS RHO is an independent expert body established to identify and tackle the inequities experienced in health and healthcare by Black and minority ethnic patients, communities, and the workforce. We recognise the ways in which racism causes many of these inequities in the first place, and how any solutions to ethnic health inequity must address the existence and impacts of racism. We encourage the health system to use our Seven Anti-Racism Principles, a simple, evidence-based model, to think through the activity needed to shift the dial on ethnic health inequity.”