Tiny Life Lost: How medical racism contributes to infant mortality

Obstetricians don't intentionally set out to provide black mothers with lower-quality care, but implicit bias — tiny, subconscious beliefs they might not realize they hold — can lead to them to take pregnant black women's concerns less seriously and treat their complaints less urgently. The victims? Black babies, who have a higher infant mortality rate than white regardless of their parents' education, income or insurance status. We wanted to know how our community, which has one of the highest infant morality rates in the nation, is working to help everyone — from doctors to mothers to babies — bring the numbers down.