What Black women can do to advocate for themselves to avoid biases at the doctor
Dr. Chaniece Wallace was a pediatric Chief Resident at Indiana School of Medicine who died of pre-eclampsia after an emergency c-section. ABC7’s Adrianna Hopkins spoke with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, an OBGYN, who says this highlights the fact that no matter your income, education, or status, these health disparities really just boil down to race.
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — Just last weekend, a 30-year-old Black doctor died of pre-eclampsia after an emergency c-section.
Dr. Chaniece Wallace was a pediatric Chief Resident at Indiana School of Medicine. ABC7’s Adrianna Hopkins spoke with Dr. Jessica Shepherd, an OBGYN, who says this highlights the fact that no matter your income, education, or status, these health disparities really just boil down to race.
I asked her what women can do to advocate for themselves and how medical professionals can check their bias.
ALSO READ: COVID-19 reveals racial disparities for expectant mothers
“From a patient perspective, what do women need to know when it comes to advocating for themselves and getting equal treatment?” asked ABC7’s Adrianna Hopkins.
“When women walk into the office, one of the things that can start a good conversation or bad conversation is simply saying ‘as an African American woman in America, there is an increased likelihood that I can have a bad outcome during this pregnancy, or after. What can *WE do to make sure I don’t have this outcome?’ If you can bring it to the forefront in the beginning, you can decide this is someone I don’t want to be under the care of, or now we can come up with a plan that both of us feel comfortable with,” explained Dr. Shepherd.
“You mention the medical field and implicit bias. Are you finding that medical professionals you work with are hyper-aware of this?” Adrianna asked.
“I think not,” said Dr. Shepherd.” And that’s not to say that they don’t want to, but implicit bias is hard to understand. It really requires over time that you acknowledge implicit bias within yourself.
I have implicit biases, you have implicit biases, we all have them. We have to Identify them and change them.”
ALSO READ: Research project designed to empower pregnant women, study maternal health disparities
Dr. Shepherd said we don’t want to get to a point where Black women are only seeing Black doctors, but we all need to get to a point where we’re anti-racist. That is, not just pointing out racism, but working against it.
