Browsing by Author "Bond, Rachel M. (56697934100)"

Purpose of Review: In the USA, the maternal mortality rate is one of the worst of developed countries. For Black women, this rate is even more stark and highlights the disparities in health care that disproportionately affect communities of color. Recent Findings: Regardless of socioeconomic status or education level, Black women are not immune to the inequities that exist in the delivery of maternal care. Cardiovascular disease has long been identified as the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths and emerging research offers a window of opportunity to modify risk factors that contribute to heart disease. In tackling the crisis, solutions must be viewed along the life course of a woman—from childhood to menopause. Summary: Opportunities exist to improve maternal and pediatric outcomes through attention to interconception visits and optimization of Black maternal care. The impact of social determinants of health, including psychosocial stressors and racism, must be acknowledged and recognized as contributors to the ongoing Black maternal cardiovascular health crisis. Future health care delivery models for Black women must involve close collaborations between pediatricians, cardiologists, internists, and obstetricians to improve pregnancy-related outcomes. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

Purpose of Review: In the USA, the maternal mortality rate is one of the worst of developed countries. For Black women, this rate is even more stark and highlights the disparities in health care that disproportionately affect communities of color. Recent Findings: Regardless of socioeconomic status or education level, Black women are not immune to the inequities that exist in the delivery of maternal care. Cardiovascular disease has long been identified as the leading cause of pregnancy-related deaths and emerging research offers a window of opportunity to modify risk factors that contribute to heart disease. In tackling the crisis, solutions must be viewed along the life course of a woman—from childhood to menopause. Summary: Opportunities exist to improve maternal and pediatric outcomes through attention to interconception visits and optimization of Black maternal care. The impact of social determinants of health, including psychosocial stressors and racism, must be acknowledged and recognized as contributors to the ongoing Black maternal cardiovascular health crisis. Future health care delivery models for Black women must involve close collaborations between pediatricians, cardiologists, internists, and obstetricians to improve pregnancy-related outcomes. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

[No abstract available]

Cardiovascular and reproductive health of women have been going hand in hand since the dawn of time, however, their links have been poorly studied and once the basis of their connections started to be established in late 20th century, it depended on local regional abilities and the level of progressive thinking to afford comprehensive women’s care beyond the “bikini medicine”. Further research identified different associations rendering more conditions sex-specific and launching therefore a slow, yet initial turn around in clinical trials’ concept as the majority of global cardiovascular guidelines rely on the results of research conducted on a very modest percentage of women and even less on the women of color. Currently, the concept of women’s heart centers varies depending on the local demographics’ guided needs, available logistics driven by budgeting and societal support of a broad-minded thinking environment, free of bias for everyone: from young adults questioning their gender identity, via women of reproductive age both struggling to conceive or keep working part time when healthy and line of work permits it during pregnancy, up to aging and the elderly. Using “Investigate-Educate-Advocate-Legislate” as the four pillars of advancing cardiovascular care of women, we aimed to sum-marize standing of women’s health in Serbia, present ongoing projects and propose actionable solutions for the future. © 2021, Serbia Medical Society. All rights reserved.

Following decades of decline, maternal mortality began to rise in the United States around 1990 - a significant departure from the world's other affluent countries. By 2018, the same could be seen with the maternal mortality rate in the United States at 17.4 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. When factoring in race/ethnicity, this number was more than double among non-Hispanic Black women who experienced 37.1 maternal deaths per 100 000 live births. More than half of these deaths and near deaths were from preventable causes, with cardiovascular disease being the leading one. In an effort to amplify the magnitude of this epidemic in the United States that disproportionately plagues Black women, on June 13, 2020, the Association of Black Cardiologists hosted the Black Maternal Heart Health Roundtable - a collaborative task force to tackle the maternal health crisis in the Black community. The roundtable brought together diverse stakeholders and champions of maternal health equity to discuss how innovative ideas, solutions and opportunities could be implemented, while exploring additional ways attendees could address maternal health concerns within the health care system. The discussions were intended to lead the charge in reducing maternal morbidity and mortality through advocacy, education, research, and collaborative efforts. The goal of this roundtable was to identify current barriers at the community, patient, and clinician level and expand on the efforts required to coordinate an effective approach to reducing these statistics in the highest risk populations. Collectively, preventable maternal mortality can result from or reflect violations of a variety of human rights - the right to life, the right to freedom from discrimination, and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. This is the first comprehensive statement on this important topic. This position paper will generate further research in disparities of care and promote the interest of others to pursue strategies to mitigate maternal mortality. © 2021 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.