Black Birthing people experience racial health disparities in pregnancy care and childbirth. In the United States, Black birthing people are 3-6x more like to die in childbirth. Indigenous birthing people are dying at a rate 2 to 3 times higher than non-Hispanic white birthing people. Black birthers are more likely to have pregnancy and birth related complications, more likely to suffer a loss of pregnancy, more likely to lose their baby within the first year of life, and more likely to have a preterm baby.

Community midwifery care, especially with a Black provider, has been shown to defy these statistics, but with high up-front costs and limited access to Black midwives, there are significant barriers to accessing care. Less than 5% of home birth families are Black, yet the interest for this birth setting is much higher, but inaccessible for many families as it is not covered by major insurance providers. This is why we have created a petition to ask that United Health Group, the largest Fortune 500 healthcare provider in the nation headquartered in MN, make structural changes within their provided coverage to make home birth an accessible and covered option for birth.