We must end the racial disparities in maternity outcomes | Letter

Women just like me are dying disproportionately and unnecessarily in what should be the happiest time of their lives, writes Dr Yasmin Mulji

Black women are four times more likely to die during childbirth than their white counterparts (‘National disgrace’: black mothers in England twice as likely to have NHS birth investigated, 23 July). South Asian women and Muslim women also experience worse maternal health outcomes. If the woman doesn’t speak English, she is 25 times more likely to die. And these shocking statistics are without these characteristics intersecting.

I’m an obstetrician who has worked on labour wards across the south of England. But I am also a woman of mixed Black and South Asian ethnicities, and I’m Muslim. So, these aren’t just tragic statistics to me. These are women just like me dying disproportionately and unnecessarily in what should be the happiest time of their lives.