Jenelle Ambrose Dash recently made a bold move to address the crisis of racial inequity in maternal health care. In 2024, she started the Black Maternal Health Community Collective (BMHCC). The organization is excited to be supporting the first-ever Toronto Black Maternal Health Week. This major event took place from April 11th-17th, 2024. Under the theme “Amplifying Our Voices,” this week-long event focused on advocating for Black women’s health and well-being during pregnancy and childbirth.
The BMHCC brings together healthcare providers, community organizations, and advocates to confront the challenges faced by Black women in Canada. Dash’s vision is to build an ecosystem of support that makes self-advocacy during these otherwise vulnerable moments less of a burden. BMHCC aims to provide culturally competent care. Improving these practices will help ensure we have a policy landscape that supports the collection and use of comprehensive race-based data to address inequities faced by Black women in healthcare.
The Inaugural Event
The first Toronto Black Maternal Health Week started off with energetic, arts-infused programming. Together, these events focused on creating conversations and obtaining resources to better educate the community on maternal health concerns. Events included research sharing sessions, midwifery discussions, a community baby shower, research and policy development workshops, and birth justice workshops. Each activity aimed to educate participants while promoting awareness of the challenges that Black women face in the healthcare system.
“This week is about holding space for every Black mother who deserves to be heard and for everyone still fighting to be,” Dash stated. The collaborative work of so many Black-led organizations this week rendered visible the power of coming together to tackle our most urgent challenges.
All the week’s activities were a lively classroom, especially the culmination in Washington. Professionally, they created opportunities for Black women to build a tight-knit network of support. The BMHCC hopes to create lasting change that extends beyond this initial awareness week, paving the way for future initiatives aimed at improving maternal healthcare for Black women across Canada.
Addressing Racial Disparities
The BMHCC is playing a leading role in addressing the lack of comprehensive, race-based health data in Canada. This data gap significantly impacts our ability to holistically measure and address racial disparities in healthcare. Dash argues that it’s important to understand these disparities so that you can make evidence-based policy decisions on the right changes to make.
Dash said that the system of policing isn’t really made for us. Here is our plight, we don’t have the data to back that up. This gap in information is dangerous for Black women. Yet the healthcare system too often misses the mark with their special needs.
BMHCC has been seeking to bolster its advocacy muscle. To scale its operations, it has partnered with influential organizations such as North York General Hospital, Black Physicians of Canada, and Mino Care. Part of these collaborations should be focused on developing data collection and reporting frameworks that will make culturally competent care options available.
A Vision for the Future
Looking ahead, Dash imagines this project growing from a local pilot into a widespread, national movement. We look forward to this Toronto Black Maternal Health Week becoming a national one. And we really hope to see this happen in other parts of Canada. This is just the beginning. I don’t want this to be an event, I want this to be a movement,” she proclaimed.
The ultimate goal of the BMHCC is to create an environment where every Black woman feels supported during her pregnancy and childbirth journey. By lifting up their stories and perspectives, Dash hopes to create a climate where more real change can take place in the healthcare system.
I don’t want to create a story that’s like, ‘Jenelle had pre-eclampsia and she lost her baby. That’s not the narrative I’m hoping to share. Dash noted an amazing truth. Most importantly, she illustrated that when Black women come together and start supporting each other, we can honestly do some amazing things.
