Black mothers have been dying, why wasn't there a watershed moment?
Baroness Amos’s maternity report ‘should be a watershed moment’ the new Health Secretary says, but why only now when they already know what happens to Black women?
Black mothers have been dying, why wasn’t there a watershed moment?
The reaction to the latest report proves Black women are not seen as mothers otherwise real change would have come a long time ago.
BY MELISSA SIGODO
JUNE 30, 2026
A new national report into neonatal and maternity care should be a “watershed moment”, the Health Secretary says. Maternity care needs an “overhaul” and a Maternity Commissioner must be appointed. Women have been failed on a “scale that shames our society” except, this isn’t the first report to reveal such distressing findings.
In 2023, a Black woman at Liverpool Women’s Hospital died due to what a maternity investigation called “unconscious cultural bias.” She wasn’t the first. In 2018, a maternity report showed that Black women were five times more likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth compared to white women - clearly warranting a watershed moment, except it never came.
We’ve heard the stories of racism in healthcare. We’ve heard of how Black women are refused pain relief. We’ve spoken about the trauma of childbirth, the negligence, the cruelty and the baby deaths. We’ve known that all we could do was advocate for ourselves during the most vulnerable time in our lives. We’ve known how grave the situation is for Black women and how the government has known it too. Yet, despite years of Black women dropping dead in the NHS, it’s only now that we’re promised it will be a “watershed moment”, and rather than rejoicing - it feels bittersweet.
It’s hard not to think of the Black mothers who didn’t live to see their children. It’s hard not to question why previous reports which recorded our suffering didn’t prompt change on this scale. It’s hard not to notice the difference in media coverage when Black women aren’t centred. It’s hard not to feel that Black women’s pain has been overlooked despite what the government already knew.
But when you start to unpack those questions, the truth is when it’s just Black women worse affected, we simply don’t count. Black mothers are not seen as mothers. If we were, a watershed moment would have already happened. Instead, we’re relegated to our own category where our deaths are isolated and we’re simply not considered in the bigger picture which should have brought society shame.