Dr. Roberta Hunte
“Our country is not performing as well as it needs to in relation to maternal health,” said Dr. Roberta Hunte on a recent episode of Northwest Permanente’s podcast Perm Pod. In conversation with host and CEO Dr. Imelda Dacones and OBGYN physician Dr. Autumn Davidson, Hunte talked about Multnomah County’s Healthy Birth Initiative and her work with them around racism-related stress and Black women’s perceptions about the impact of racism on their pregnancies.
The Healthy Birth Initiative is a Black led nurse–family partnership program within Multnomah County that addresses Black maternal health and infant morbidity disparities. The program offers home visits, advocacy, transportation, mental health support, family planning, multi-generation involvement, childbirth classes, and everything between for mothers throughout their pregnancy and 18 months after giving birth.
Regardless of income status, Black women experience disproportionate negative health outcomes in pregnancy and postpartum. According to the National Institutes of Health, rates of maternal morbidity and mortality (MMM) are much higher in the United States than in its peer nations. National severe maternal morbidity (SMM) rates have nearly doubled over the past decade, and the incidence of SMM was 166% higher for Black women than White women from 2012 to 2015 (NIH, 2020).
Roberta Hunte’s recent work has explored the perceptions of Black people who can become pregnant and the impacts of racism-related stress on their physical and mental well-being. In 2020 she presented “Healthy Birth Initiatives: The Road Toward Reproductive Justice” with her School of Social Work colleague Susanne Klawetter and nurse Sherly Paul from Multnomah County’s Healthy Birth Initiative program. This report is available as part of Hunte’s selected works within the PDXScholar institutional repository.
Dr. Hunte is an Assistant Professor at Portland State University’s School of Social Work. She received her M.S. in Conflict Resolution from PSU, and her doctorate from the University of Manitoba in Peace and Conflict Studies. She is affiliate faculty in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Black Studies. Hunte is a community engaged Black feminist scholar, whose academic interests include sexual and reproductive justice, cultural work for social change, and how Black, Indigenous, and People of Color navigate institutions: particulalry construction, maternal healthcare, and higher education. Her research based artistic collaborations include the theatre piece “My Walk Has Never Been Average”, and the short film “Sista in the Brotherhood,” both informed by her research with Black tradeswomen; as well as the devised theater piece entitled “We are BRAVE,” based on reproductive stories from people of color and transgender people.
Hunte’s Perm Pod conversation with Dr. Dacones and Dr. Davidson is also available within PDXScholar.