Black Maternal Health Awareness Week is personal for me. As the co-founder of Five X More, a campaign committed to changing Black maternal outcomes in the UK, we have spent the last five years advocating, amplifying, and pushing for a system that truly protects all women, not just some.
Last week, as we marked Black Maternal Health Awareness Week UK 2025, the urgency remains.
According to the latest MBRRACE report, Black women are 2.9 times more likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or in the six weeks after, compared to white women in the UK. The data still tells us what our communities have been saying for decades. And yet, even now, we’re met with disbelief when we share these facts.
At the recent Black Maternal Health parliamentary debate hosted as part of this week’s awareness efforts, we listened in disbelief as Dr Caroline Johnson, an MP, a practising doctor for over 20 years, and the Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care, claimed she had 'not seen any evidence' of structural racism in the NHS. Let that sink in.
Despite countless reports, testimonies, and the very lived experience of many Black patients across the NHS, she believes structural racism doesn’t exist. That there are just 'a few bad apples'. Structural racism is not just about individual prejudice. It’s about the way systems are set up in society that make it harder for Black people to get fair treatment.
When entire communities are being failed, when patterns are repeating, outcomes are consistently worse, and pain is consistently ignored, it’s not a bad apple. It’s a broken system.
During the debate, it was also raised by various MP’s the fact that the current government made a clear commitment in their election manifesto to tackle maternal disparities, specifically to set a target to end the unacceptable number of Black women dying during and after childbirth. Yet here we are, ten months on, and there is still no official target in place. When challenged, the government’s response was that they are working on it and want to 'get it right' but how long do we have to wait? Every month that passes is another month of being overlooked. We don’t want promises, we want action and we will keep pushing until that target is formally set.
And while it’s exhausting to still be explaining this, it’s also why Black Maternal Health Awareness Week exists. We centre the voices of Black women. We share the data. We push for policy. We celebrate community. And we remind the world that these lives matter.
This year’s theme is Transforming Change. It’s a call to action for healthcare professionals, for policymakers, for the public.
Because respect in maternity care shouldn’t be optional. Protecting Black women shouldn’t require a campaign. And support shouldn’t be limited to hashtags during awareness weeks.
We often say Five X More was born out of pain, but it’s built on purpose. We’ve held roundtables, launched reports, built apps, stood in rooms that weren’t built for us, and spoken truth to power because our lives depend on it.
We’re not asking for sympathy. We’re asking for change. If you want to be part of that change:
Listen to Black women.
Write to your MP.
Donate to the campaign.
Share our resources, including the Five X More App, now available in both app stores.
The app is a digital resource specifically designed to improve Black women’s experiences, help them feel safer during pregnancy, access trusted advice, and build an online community.
The data is clear and has been around for decades. The stories are real and they are happening everywhere. Now it’s time for transforming change for Black women and all women across maternity services in the UK.
Tinuke Awe is the founder of Five x More. An organisation advocating and campaigning for improved Improving Black maternal mental health in the UK.