Case Study
Understanding the Inequities of Black Women’s Pregnancy Journeys
overview
Our client, a national non-profit, outlined a plan for a series of research initiatives to better understand disparities in Black women’s maternity healthcare in the United States. The full 100-week journey sought to uncover these disparities and the causes behind higher mortality rates in the Black community. C+R’s Culturebeat team was selected as a research partner, given their deep understanding of multicultural audiences. This phase of the research was intended to provide stories and experiences that will be used alongside academic literature and statistics to add a layer of rich context, memorable stories, and bring forth the human lived experiences to these numbers. Moreover, this rich context will inform future strategies to help bridge the gaps of disparities along the pregnancy journey of Black women.
THE PROBLEM
Need to understand the Black woman’s pregnancy journey to identify pain points, inequities, and current bright spots to narrow the gap of disparities
The goal of this research was to help our client humanize and bring to life Black women’s maternity experiences in the U.S., with the specific goal of understanding gaps and inequities in maternity health care across the full 100-week journey span. Our client needed to inform future strategies to help bridge the gaps of disparities in care along the journey.
OUR APPROACH
Online discussion + In-depth Interviews = Deep Understanding
C+R’s online immersion team conducted an asynchronous discussion, followed by in-depth interviews with Black women who have given birth at least 2 years ago. Activities for both sessions were designed to include discussions around their pregnancy journey: through preconception, pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum. Additionally, we included one-on-one sessions with members from the non-profit MoMMAs Voices to understand the more detailed history of the relationship between healthcare and Black mothers and to gather stories that led to their activism to improve the system for future births.
The result
Mapping the Journey Identifying Pain Points, Gaps and Even Bright Spots
With our in-depth qualitative approach, C+R was able to illuminate the lived experiences across the entire 100-day maternity journey, including all phases: pre-conception, pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum and child wellness. At each phase, we were able to identify pain points, gaps, bright spots, as well as what they would like for an ideal experience in each phase.
proven experience
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