Merck Expands Safer Childbirth Cities Initiative to 20th Community-Led Project Advancing Maternal Health Equity During Black Maternal Health Week

Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today the funding support of its 20^th community-based project in the Safer Childbirth Cities initiative aimed at fostering solutions that will help U.S. cities become safer, more equitable places to give birth. The expansion of the program, launched by Merck for Mothers, Merck’s global initiative to help create a world where no woman has to die giving life, comes at an important moment during Black Maternal Health Week occurring April 11 – 17, 2021. The annual week, founded and led by the Black Mamas Matter Alliance, is centered on deepening the conversation and community-led solutions to improve Black maternal health outcomes in the U.S.

The newest Safer Childbirth Cities grant to the Austin Community Foundation as fiscal sponsor for the Black Mamas Community Collective, supports a project to directly tackle racial inequities in maternal health outcomes and increase access to quality care for Black mothers and their families in Austin, TX. The project will be implemented by the Maternal Health Equity Collaborative (MHEC), which centers Black Women and Women of Color — both in leading the collaborative and in the work they do in and with the community. The MHEC is made up of four doula organizations, Black Mamas ATX, Giving Austin Labor Support, Healing Hands Community Doula Project and Mama Sana Vibrant Woman and two parental support organizations, Hand to Hold and Partners in Parenting.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Black, American Indian and Alaska Native women are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than White women. Data from a 2020 study by the Texas Department of State Health Services shows a similar trend in Texas where Black women are disproportionately impacted by maternal mortality and 89% of all pregnancy-related deaths in the state could have been prevented. Merck for Mothers is committed to programs like Safer Childbirth Cities that bring local resources to communities such as Austin, TX in order to address the root causes of this disparity, including community factors and the social determinants of health that contribute to poor maternal health outcomes.