Logan et al.: Coerced Procedures (Birth, 2022)
Black women face double the coercion rate during birth
Black women are 2x as likely to be coerced into procedures they did not consent to during labor and delivery.
The Logan team analyzed mistreatment specifically in terms of coerced procedures, meaning procedures performed despite the mother saying no, or performed without her being given a real choice. Black women in the sample were twice as likely to report coerced procedures as white women.
The procedures most commonly described included episiotomies, internal exams, AROM (artificial rupture of membranes), and certain pharmacological inductions. The paper appeared in Birth, one of the standard journals for maternity-care research. The methodology was self-report survey, which has known limits but also captures the patient experience directly, which clinical chart review typically does not.
2x
Black women coercion rate vs white
2022
Publication year
Birth
Journal
Why it matters
When a Black mother is twice as likely to be coerced into a procedure she said no to, the consent system is not working evenly. It is failing predictably by race.
This is one finding from the research library behind How to Birth a Mother. Everything here traces back to a study, a dataset, or a systematic review.