Healthy Black women with low risk factors were far more likely to get C-sections than white women with similar medical histories, a large new study found.
Obstetricians are more likely to give Black women unnecessary cesarean sections, putting those women at higher risk for serious complications like ruptured surgical wounds.
That’s the conclusion of a new report of nearly one million births in 68 hospitals in New Jersey, one of the largest studies to tackle the subject.
Even if a Black mother and a white mother with similar medical histories saw the same doctor at the same hospital, the Black mother was about 20 percent more likely to have her baby via C-section, the study found.
The additional operations on Black patients were more likely to happen when hospitals had no scheduled C-sections, meaning their operating rooms were sitting empty. That suggests that racial bias paired with financial incentives played a role in doctors’ decision-making, the researchers said.
How that bias creeps in is not entirely clear. Doctors may rush to perform a C-section faster for Black women, worried about the well-known racial disparities in childbirth outcomes. Black women may feel less empowered to push back against the suggestion of C-section when their labor is not progressing — or, when they do push back, they may be less likely to have their concerns taken seriously.
“Physicians may have certain beliefs about Black women,” said Janet Currie, a health economist at Princeton University and a co-author of the study. “They might not be listening to Black women as much, or be more afraid that something will go wrong.”
We want to hear from Black parents and their medical providers about childbirth
The New York Times is investigating disparities in hospital treatment for new parents. We want to hear from Black parents who have given birth within the last five years, and the medical providers (such as doulas, midwives, nurses and doctors) who treat them. We will not publish any part of your submission without contacting you first.