Sandra Igwe

Just day’s after the Candice Brathwaite vs Rochelle Humes racism in maternity care debacle ensued on social media (Read Here), an urgent inquiry has now been launched to investigate how alleged systemic racism in the NHS manifests itself in maternity care.

Data published in January by MBRRACE-UK reported that Black women are four times more likely than their white counterparts to die in pregnancy or childbirth in the UK.

Co-chair of the inquiry, Sandra Igwe said that during the birth of her first daughter,

“I felt like my words were dismissed, I didn’t receive adequate care, I was ignored, almost labelled as the ‘angry black woman’ who was hysterical and exaggerating her pain, when I didn’t, and I also felt like they were dismissing my pain because they were saying that my contractions didn’t coincide with my screams, so why am I screaming?”