Black History Month and the Fight for Black Maternal and Infant Health in West Virginia

By Rhonda Rogombé

Happy Black History Month! For the past 100 years, communities across the United States have celebrated Black life during the month of February. It is a time to uplift Black achievements, contributions, resilience, and so much more. America as we know it — West Virginia as we know it — could not exist without the Black community.

And while that is a beautiful sentiment, Black History Month is also a time to reflect on the cost of those contributions. It is a time to acknowledge the legacy of slavery, segregation, and discrimination, and the ways those systems continue to shape the lives — and health — of Black people today. To move toward an equitable future, we must acknowledge and repair this country’s legacy of violence toward marginalized communities.

Over the past several years, researchers have highlighted one glaring disparity in American society: Black mothers and babies are dying at alarming rates. Even when controlling for factors like household income and education, Black infant and maternal mortality rates are often two to three times higher than those of white mothers and babies.

These realities sparked national outrage — including here in West Virginia. Despite the state’s relatively small Black population, advocates knew Black West Virginians were not immune to the legacy of medical discrimination, limited health care access, and gaps in the social determinants of health that impact Black communities nationwide.

In response, advocates, researchers, health care providers, and impacted community members across the state formed a Black Infant and Maternal Health Coalition. The goal was to better understand racial disparities in infant and maternal deaths in West Virginia and to use that knowledge to educate communities and advance policy solutions that improve outcomes — not only for Black families, but also for rural and low-income communities statewide.

The data confirms what families have been saying for years. Between 2020 and 2022, West Virginia’s Black infant mortality rate was 13.4 deaths per 1,000 births — more than double the state’s overall rate of 6.4 per 1,000. Even more troubling, the West Virginia Fatality Mortality Review Team found that 25 percent of infant deaths between 2017 and 2022 were preventable.

In its 2025 report, the Review Team also shared racial data on maternal deaths for the first time — after sustained advocacy. Despite accounting for fewer than four percent of live births between 2017 and 2023, Black mothers represented eight percent of maternal deaths in West Virginia. Overall, 70 percent of maternal deaths were deemed preventable.

At the same time, access to maternity care is rapidly disappearing across the state. In 2006, West Virginia had 35 hospitals that delivered babies. Today, only about half remain.

These statistics have rightly alarmed lawmakers, who have introduced legislation championed by the coalition — such as bills to expand access to doula services and to create a pathway to licensure for certified professional midwives. Research shows that doulas and midwives improve birth outcomes by reducing preterm births, lowering rates of postpartum depression, and providing culturally responsive care. Importantly, they can also travel to communities that would otherwise be left without essential maternity services.

These are just two of many policy solutions that can improve Black maternal and infant health in West Virginia. Health care access takes many forms, but lasting change requires us to remember our history and confront the conditions that created today’s disparities.

Just as a rising tide lifts every boat, addressing the historical harms experienced by Black West Virginians will improve health outcomes for all mothers and babies across the state.