A Failing System: The Review of Maternal Health and the 7P Medical Model as They Relate to Black Women

Abstract

For Black women, encountering racial bias within maternal health is commonplace. In fact, the field of Obstetrics and Gynecology was birthed from a physician’s experimentations on slaves. This is the legacy of maternal health in America; a legacy that has served as a blueprint for other nations, resulting in preventable deaths that effect Black women the most. This study fills a gap in the literature with an analysis of how Black women are overlooked in Systems Biology and the 7P medical model, which both direct medical care within the United States. This analysis revealed that the frameworks from which all medicine is based does not address the medical concerns of Black mothers. Rectifying this injustice can be achieved by modifying the frameworks of medicine and by viewing the deaths of Black mothers within America as a public health crisis.