S23 Ep15: Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice with Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, PhD, Founder CBMHRJ

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Previously titled “S23 Ep14: Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice with Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, PhD, Founder CBMHRJ” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 5, 2026

Something Was Wrong 40 min 4 speakers 7 chapters transcribed

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What are the key issues in Black maternal health?

Amy 0:00

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Something Was Wrong early and ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. Something Was Wrong is intended for mature audiences. This season contains discussions of medical negligence, birth trauma, and infant loss, which may be upsetting for some listeners. For a full content warning, sources, and resources, please visit the episode notes. Opinions shared by the guests of the show are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of myself, Broken Cycle Media, and Wondery. The podcast and any linked materials should not be misconstrued as a substitution for legal or medical advice. Origins birth and wellness owners and midwives Caitlin Wages and Gina Thompson have not responded to our requests for comment. Additionally, midwives Jennifer Crawford and Elizabeth Fuel have also not returned our request for comment. This season is dedicated with love to Malik.

Tiffany Reese 1:48

Hi friends, this is Amy B. Chesler. As season 23 has progressed, and especially over the last couple weeks, many additional brave survivors have reached out to us to share their experiences. With that comes a lot of new evidence, and because we need to follow up on and fact-check every lead before airing the season finale, we need some extra time. In the meantime, today's special episode features a conversation between the Broken Cycle Media team and Dr. Ndidiya Maka Amuta Onukaga, founder and director of the Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice. This season, it was extremely important to have an honest conversation about the state of maternal health in America, especially for Black birthing people and other marginalized communities. We deeply appreciate Dr. Amuta Onukaga for sharing her time and expertise with us.

What personal experiences shaped Dr. Amutah-Onukagha's work?

Tiffany Reese 2:44

Please don't forget to show your support for her and her organization by visiting the episode notes and finding out more about what they're doing to improve maternal and neonatal health in America.

Dr. Ndidiya Maka Amutah-Onukagha 3:01

Good afternoon, everybody. My name is Dr. Mutana Kaga. I am the founder and director of the Center for Black Maternal Health and Reproductive Justice, as well as the founder and director of the Mother Lab, which is a large research lab dedicated to training the next generation of maternal health scholar activists. I have 35 students in that lab. I'm also a dean here in the School of Medicine and I have a consulting company. Thanks for having me.

Tiffany Reese 3:25

Thank you so much for your time and expertise today. Can you share with us what led you to this work?

Dr. Ndidiya Maka Amutah-Onukagha 3:32

A lot of my professional journey was shaped by personal tragedies. So I lost a friend of mine in childhood. She died from complications after giving birth. She had lupus and the pregnancy exacerbated her lupus. The hospital she delivered in was not equipped to handle a high-risk pregnancy. I think experiencing that as a young person, I was 16, she was 15, and then experiencing the death of a colleague and friend in my adulthood, Dr. Shalon Irving, who was also a preventable case, had been seen eight times after delivery, should have been readmitted and prioritized, was not. and also died from complications after her delivery. These types of events solidified my professional expertise and passion in Black maternal health. I also have training in this area. My doctorate is in maternal child health. I'm a woman with lived experience. I have children of my own, and I can firsthand see how the healthcare system does not prioritize and frankly fails to listen to Black women in the pregnancy and birthing process.

Dr. Ndidiya Maka Amutah-Onukagha 4:33

So that is both the personal and professional overview of how I came to do this work, addressing these systemic inequities and really questioning why do we see the disproportionate maternal mortality and morbidity around Black women. I've been coupling that with the research aspect of it, so both quantitative and qualitative research, really trying to document how pervasive the impact of racism, environmental stressors, and unequal access to care is on Black women's bodies and birth outcomes. And then a lot of my work also includes authoring studies and being a principal investigator of research studies

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Chapters

7 chapters

1 What are the key issues in Black maternal health? 0:00–2:44 2 What personal experiences shaped Dr. Amutah-Onukagha's work? 2:44–10:12 3 What are the statistics on maternal mortality rates for Black women? 10:12–17:04 4 How does systemic racism affect maternal health outcomes? 17:04–31:25 5 What role does Medicaid play in maternal health? 31:25–34:49 6 How do maternal health care deserts impact access to services? 34:49–36:49 7 What are the benefits of telehealth in maternal care? 36:49–40:27

Speakers

4 identified

Dr. Ndidiya Maka Amutah-Onukagha 30 min Amy 4 min Tiffany Reese 2 min Unknown Speaker 2 min

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Source

Recorded15 May 2025

Publisherrss.art19.com ↗

CollectionAudioscrape Public Library

Transcriptspeaker-named · 100+ languages

Handlerec:277230

Show notes

*Content warning: birth trauma, medical trauma, medical neglect, racism, death of an infant, infant loss, death, maternal loss, mature and stressful themes. *Free + Confidential Resources + Safety Tips: somethingwaswrong.com/resources Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice: https://blackmaternalhealth.tufts.edu/ Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cbmhrj_tufts/ Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CBMHRJTufts/ Center for Black Maternal Health & Reproductive Justice LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cbmhrjtufts/ Sources: Addressing Transportation Barriers to Improve Healthcare Access in Arizona https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/674794 Advancing Health Equity and Value-Based Care: A Mobile Approach https://info.primarycare.hms.harvard.edu/perspectives/articles/mobile-clinics-in-the-us-health-system#:~:text=Mobileclinicsareaproven,thecriticalweeksafterbirth American College of Nurse Midwives https://midwife.org/ American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) https://www.acog.org/ Birth Centers in Massachusetts https://baystatebirth.org/birth-centers A Brief History of Midwifery in America https://www.ohsu.edu/womens-health/brief-history-midwifery-america Clinical outcomes improve when patient’s and surgeon’s ethnicity match, study shows https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/clinical-outcomes-patients-surgeons-concordance The Controversial Birth of American Gynecology https://researchblog.duke.edu/2023/10/27/the-controversial-birth-of-american-gynecology/ 'Father Of Gynecology,' Who Experimented On Slaves, No Longer On Pedestal In NYC https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/17/603163394/-father-of-gynecology-who-experimented-on-slaves-no-longer-on-pedestal-in-nyc Governor Healey Signs Maternal Health Bill, Expanding Access to Midwifery, Birth Centers and Doulas in Massachusetts https://www.mass.gov/news/governor-healey-signs-maternal-health-bill-expanding-access-to-midwifery-birth-centers-and-doulas-in-massachusetts#:~:text=GovernorHealeySignsMaternalHealthBillCExpanding,ExecutiveOfficeofHealthandHumanServices Governor Murphy Signs Bill Establishing Maternal and Infant Health Innovation Center https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562023/approved/20230717a.shtml Helping Mothers and Children Thrive: Rethinking CMS’s Transforming Maternal Health (TMaH) Model https://www.milbank.org/quarterly/opinions/helping-mothers-and-children-thrive-rethinking-cmss-transforming-maternal-health-tmah-model/#:~:text=TheTransformingMaternalHealth(TMaH)Model&text=TheTMaHModelfocuseson,midwiferyservicesanddoulacare The Historical Significance of Doulas and Midwives https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-significance-doulas-and-midwives Infant Health and Mortality and Black/African American https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/infant-health-and-mortality-and-blackafrican-americans#:~:text=In2022%2Ctheinfantmortality,Figure2 Legislature Passes Comprehensive Maternal Health Bill https://malegislature.gov/PressRoom/Detail?pressReleaseId=136 Life Story: Anarcha, Betsy, and Lucy https://wams.nyhistory.org/a-nation-divided/antebellum/anarcha-betsy-lucy/ Management of Postpartum Hemorrhage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Emergency Need for Updated Approach Due to Specific Circumstances, Resources, and Availabilities https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11643001/#:~:text=EtiologyandRiskFactorsof,insufficienttreatment%E2%80%9D%5B50%5D March of Dimes https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/about-us Maternity Care Desert https://www.marchofdimes.org/peristats/data?top=23 Maternal deaths and mortality rates by state, 2018-2022 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/maternal-mortality/mmr-2018-2022-state-data.pdf Maternal Mortality in the United States After Abortion Bans https://thegepi.org/maternal-mortality-abortion-bans/#:~:text=In2023%2CTexas'smaternalmortality,suffermaternaldeathin2023 Maternal Mortality in the U.S Declined, though Disparities in the Black Population Persist https://policycentermmh.org/maternal-mortality-in-the-u-s-a-declining-trend-with-persistent-racial-disparities-in-the-black-population/ Maternal Mortality Is on the Rise: 8 Things To Know https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/maternal-mortality-on-the-rise Maternal Mortality: How the U.S. Compares to Other Rich Countries https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2024-06-04/how-the-u-s-compares-to-other-rich-countries-in-maternal-mortality Maternal Mortality Rates in the United States, 2021 https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/maternal-mortality/2021/maternal-mortality-rates-2021.htm#:~:text=In2021%2C1%2C205womendied,20.1in2019(Table) Medical Exploitation of Black Women https://eji.org/news/history-racial-injustice-medical-exploitation-of-black-women/ National Midwifery Institute https://www.nationalmidwiferyinstitute.com/midwifery National Counsel of State Boards of Nursing https://www.ncsbn.org/ North American Registry of Midwives (NARM) https://narm.org/ Outcome of subsequent pregnancies in women with complete uterine rupture: A population-based case–control study https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/aogs.14338#:~:text=outcomesarerare.-,1INTRODUCTION,experienceacompleteuterinerupture.&text=Completeuterineruptureisdefined,completeruptureofthemyometrium Pregnancy-Related Deaths: Data From Maternal Mortality Review Committees in 36 U.S. States, 2017–2019 https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-mortality/php/data-research/mmrc-2017-2019.html Preterm Birth https://www.cdc.gov/maternal-infant-health/preterm-birth/index.html#:~:text=Pretermbirthrates&text=In2022%2Cpretermbirthamong,orHispanicwomen(10.1%25) Racial Disparities in Maternal and Infant Health: Current Status and Efforts to Address Them https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/racial-disparities-in-maternal-and-infant-health-current-status-and-efforts-to-address-them/ The Racist History of Abortion and Midwifery Bans https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/the-racist-history-of-abortion-and-midwifery-bans Reducing Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity and Mortality https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5915910/#:~:text=Severemorbidityposesanenormous,ofseverematernalmorbidityevents State investigating Dallas birth center and midwives, following multiple complaints from patients https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/investigates/state-investigating-dallas-birth-center-midwives-following-multiple-complaints-from-patients/287-ea77eb18-c637-44d4-aaa2-fe8fd7a2fcef The State of Telehealth Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9035352/ Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) https://www.tdlr.texas.gov/ U.S. maternal death rate increasing at an alarming rate<...

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