Addressing Maternal Health Disparities in Knoxville
The University of Tennessee Humanities Center provided a grant for a focus group on maternal health issues and disparities.
By Myron Thompson
Danielle Procope Bell, an assistant professor in the Department of Africana Studies and member of Knox Birth Equity Alliance (KBEA), supports the One Health Initiative providing information and potential solutions for the community’s maternal health and related disparities. The Knox Birth Equity Alliance is a local community group founded in 2019 to address Black maternal health disparities in the Knoxville community. It is composed of local professors, health workers from the Knox County Health Department, non-profit leaders, and other volunteers.
The CDC reported in 2023, that “Black women are three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women” in the United States. Through her research and time with KBEA, Bell asserts that this same maternal disparity is occurring for Black women in the Knoxville area.
“Black women here in Knoxville are approximately 3 to 4 times more likely to pass away from childbirth complications or during that first year post-partum, and Black babies are also 3 to 4 times more likely to pass away during their first year of life,” Bell said.
Although 17 percent of Knoxville is Black according to statistics gathered from the Knox County Health Department, “In 2017, the infant mortality rate for black babies in Knox County was four-and-a-half times that of white babies, and the rate of black babies born at a low-birth rate was almost two-and-a-half times that of white babies.”
Bell received funding from the UT Humanities Center to develop a Black Maternity Health Think Tank. The goal of the think tank is to develop specific and targeted initiatives to reduce rates of disparities in Black maternal health and infant mortality in Knoxville. To accomplish this, the eight colleagues each bring their own specialties, while brainstorming, hoping to eventually match the developed initiatives with grant funding.
“What happens, basically, when you get a group of people who are invested in one specific topic? Black maternal health, in this case —[something good]….So this is the first time that anything like that has been done here in Knox County,” Bell said.
Students wanting to get involved are encouraged to join one of the local non-profits, email Professor Bell, or to be looking out for potential upcoming paid internship opportunities along with research position opportunities. One student, Maron Desta, was able to play a fundamental role as a research assistant for Bell’s research on Black maternal health. Desta became involved in the research after taking a Black feminist theory class with Bell in the prior fall semester; one of several courses offered by Bell and the Department of Africana Studies.
Desta was also given the opportunity to act as a speaker and to introduce guest speakers at Bell’s Black Maternal Health Forum. Desta has worked with Bell on other research and presented at the exhibition of Undergraduate Research Experience and Creative Achievement (EUReCA).
