After years of calls for data, study confirms Black Canadians face higher risk of maternal complications
Researchers and advocates say this highlights the need for tools to combat racism, bias
asserted
this → confirm → bias
The most comprehensive study yet of maternal health in Canada has found Black Canadians face a much higher risk of serious complications during pregnancy, labour, delivery and postpartum than white people — underlining the urgent need for better data tracking and tools to eliminate systemic anti-Black racism in our health-care system, researchers and advocates say.
asserted
researchers → find → system
The research, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), looked at more than 108,000 in-hospital deliveries to Black people, and more than 1.3 million in-hospital deliveries to white people across the country between 2012 and 2023.
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research → publish → 2012
Researchers found that severe maternal morbidity, encompassing complications such as pre-eclampsia, hemorrhage and sepsis, occurred at a rate of 47.8 out of 1,000 live births for a Black parent compared to 27.7 out of 1,000 live births for a white parent.
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morbidity → find → parent
Even when researchers accounted for other factors like age, immigration status or other health conditions, Black people still had a 66 per cent higher chance of experiencing these potentially life-threatening complications.
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people → account → complications
The data lines up with what advocates have been saying for years — that Black women have their pain dismissed and routinely face barriers when navigating maternal care.
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pain → line → care
“It's huge to finally have this, you know, so-called proof and evidence that we've been told that we need to have in order to really prioritize Black communities and reproductive health,” said Cheyenne Scarlett, co-founder of the Black Birth Project, a non-profit aimed at improving reproductive outcomes for Black people in Canada.
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Scarlett → have → Canada
She told CBC News that she has first-hand experience with the cracks in Canada’s maternal care: She once went to the ER with an ectopic pregnancy, and says she was sent home without receiving proper treatment.
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she → tell → treatment
“This report is not at all shocking to me,” she said.
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she → say → me
Official data shows Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth than white women.
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women → show → women
They are twice as likely in the U.K., while a 2021 study from The Lancet found that Black women had a 43 per cent higher risk of miscarriage.
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women → find → miscarriage
But similar long-term demographic data has been lacking in Canada until now, despite years of calls for it.
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data → lack → it
“As Canadians … we’ve been able to distance ourselves from the very real reality of the fact that although universal health care is so important, it still doesn’t mean universal access for everyone,” Giulia Muraca, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at McMaster University, told CBC News.
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Muraca → distance → News
Research highlights disparities in breast cancer care for Black women in Canada
More women are taking testosterone to treat menopause symptoms.
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women → highlight → symptoms
Does science support that?
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science → support → that
The higher rates of complications for Black people persisted when researchers controlled for conditions that occur in different rates in Black and white populations, such as sickle cell disease, with authors noting in the study that the consistent disparity “suggests broader structural influences on maternal health.”
And while a higher income correlated with an improvement in maternal outcome for white parents, the study found that rates of severe complications increased for Black parents along with their income — an example of a "diminishing returns" phenomenon, Muraca suggested, in which those who experience structural marginalization don't receive the same advantages of an increased income.
uncertain
who → persist → income
The study didn't look at causes, but its authors stress that these differences don’t stem from race itself.
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differences → look → race
"Being Black is not the cause of these differences," Muraca said.
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Muraca → say → differences
The evidence that Black patients are experiencing "less equitable outcomes," she said, should prompt us to start examining "inequities in access ... differences in communication, in escalation of care, in differences in treatment, for example.
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she → experience → example
"These are things that we can start to now collect routine data on and hold institutions accountable for.
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institutions → start → data
'We are dying'
The struggles Black people face in Canada just trying to access health care is something that community organizations have been studying independently for years.
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organizations → die → years
"So me, as a Black woman, when I go into the hospital, when I'm in front of a practitioner, how are they responding to me?" Kearie Daniel, executive director and founder of the Black Women’s Institute for Health, said.
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Daniel → go → Health
"Are they going to see my pain the same way that they're seeing someone else's?"
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they → go → someone
A national survey released by the Black Women’s Institute for Health in 2025 looked at the experiences of nearly 2,000 Black women and girls with Canada’s health-care system.
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survey → release → system
It found that 42 per cent avoid seeking medical care because they were afraid of how they might be treated.
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they → find → care
When it came to maternal care, some women reported fearing their children might be taken from them after staff summoned social workers with no justification, Daniel said.
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Daniel → come → justification
Others dealt with miscarriages at home rather than risk poor treatment at the hospital.
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Others → deal → hospital
Many reported their pain was ignored.
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pain → report → ?
"They're giving birth in the emergency bathroom, in the waiting room, they are being turned away," Daniel said.
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Daniel → give → room
She said during her own pregnancy, her mother kept stressing she needed to dress well when going to the hospital, concerned that she wouldn’t be taken seriously.
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she → say → hospital
"Having to go into a system that really isn't seeing your full humanity when you're depending on them to do so for your survival and the survival of your baby is just so — 'demoralizing' is not the right word.
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demoralizing → have → baby
It's not a heavy enough word to really articulate just how excruciating it is."
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it → articulate → ?
Government action needed: advocates
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action → need → ?
Research has shown that Black people in Canada often suffer higher risks of negative health outcomes, including with breast cancer and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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people → show → pandemic
Enduring disparities have their roots in historical injustices that shaped modern medicine, according to a recent report set to publish this fall in the Canadian Ethnic Studies journal.
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that → have → journal
To ensure equitable maternity care, what’s needed now, Daniel said, is real action from governments and health-care organizations.
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Daniel → ensure → governments
Better staff training is important, but it must be paired with the tracking of race-based data along with other socioeconomic differences, she said, to monitor if interventions are actually improving health outcomes for Black people.
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interventions → pair → people
Although some regions began tracking race-based health data after the pandemic, it's still fractured across the country.
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it → begin → country
"There has to be accountability," Daniel said.
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Daniel → have → ?
"We are dying as a result of not having that."
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We → die → that
…and 14 more, not listed.
The Aporia
