Circle 4: Black Maternal Mortality

The Mississippi Free Press convened a virtual Solutions Circle on June 17, 2025, with about 40 attendees discussing health access and disparity challenges and brainstorming solutions. with our staff and this summer’s Mississippi Youth Media Project students to discuss their experiences. Our reporters and students listened in on these conversations, and kept notes about the issues and potential solutions participants came up with. Our YMP students will be using this experience as part of their summer projects. 

Then on Thursday, June 26, the YMP students and full MFP staff did an in-newsroom Solutions Circle to brainstorm and log specific story ideas either team can follow up separately or in collaboration.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this circle! If you’d like to hear about more circles, sign up here: http://mfp.ms/circlesinterest. Our next virtual circle is Tuesday, July 1, at 5:30 p.m. to identify types of freedom challenges and potential solution to inform our coverage. Please join if can.

Issues: 

  • Racial Bias & Dismissal of Concerns:
    • Doctors not listening to Black women’s concerns (e.g., higher pain tolerance myth, miscarriages not being heard, something “being wrong” not acknowledged).
    • Difficulty finding Black women doctors for competent cultural care.
    • Doctors may push other solutions along or not provide certain testing.
    • Experiences of losing babies due to doctors miscarrying/incompetent cervix not listened to.
    • Women don’t have advocates unless they advocate for themselves. 
  • Maternal Mental Health & Stigma:
    • Postpartum depression and other maternal mental health issues (infertility, pregnancy loss) are “silent” in the Black community. 
    • Stigma around mental health; Black women are expected to be “everything all the time.”
    • Infertility causes women to feel “less-than,” impacting self-worth. 
    • High risk of maternal death during and after birth due to mental health.

Potential Solutions: 

  • Open Dialogue & Storytelling:
    • Have more opportunities for open dialogue.
    • Hear more stories and experiences to “humanize these stories.”
    • Give girls and younger moms a place to talk about “taboo topics” and emotions (supporting teen moms, not just teen pregnancies).
  • Community Support & Organizations:
    • Organizations like Sense Mami (Mommy) – free doula, Black Women Coalition in Mississippi.
    • “Mommy box” initiatives, bringing back community events for Black mothers.
    • Mocha Moms, Joy Days.
    • Utilize churches to disseminate information and provide comfort. 
  • Comprehensive Maternal Support:
    • Healthcare that supports mothers during the entire process (not just birth).
    • Create safe spaces for mental health, especially postpartum.
    • More resources for healthy pregnancies and successful deliveries (acknowledging and leveraging existing community work).
    • Empower women to advocate for themselves and have advocates present.

The mission of the Mississippi Free Press, a new nonprofit journalism website and multimedia network that launched in March 2020, is to publish deep public-interest reporting into causes of and solutions to the social, political and structural challenges facing all Mississippians and their communities. Mississippians need to know each other across regions and share our challenges and solutions despite geographic and other differences. We are introducing Mississippians to each other through our deep accountability reporting and compelling people-focused storytelling, and by convening online and physical “solutions circles,” using our statewide networks to ensure inclusivity and representation.