Voices for Change in Black Maternal Health

After learning about alarmingly high mortality rates of Black women before, during and after pregnancy, two Seattle University undergraduate nursing students decided they needed to do something. Working with the then CEO of Byrd Barr Place, a nonprofit that serves the Black community in Seattle and across the state, and the Seattle University College of Nursing professor who oversaw the year-long population health internship at the organization, the two students turned their final paper into a high-quality journal article that can serve as an important resource for the nursing community. Their paper, “Essential Nursing Actions to Reduce Inequalities for Black Women in the Perinatal Period” was published late last year in the prestigious Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing. Bethany Van Baak, ‘22, who works as a registered nurse in the Emergency Department at Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, says she and Amy Powell, ‘23, wrote the piece of “critical commentary” as a way to move beyond asking “What is the problem?” and doing something about it. Van Baak says the problem is clear—racism is killing Black women when they are giving birth and the article can help focus the efforts of nurses. “It can be an actionable, tangible...