A new study which found racial minorities living in poor areas actually have a lower risk of mental health problems relating to pregnancy compared to their similarly situated white counterparts shows racism is a “complex” topic, according to the authors.
This paper, published in Social Science and Medicine, hypothesized that residing in “structurally deprived neighborhoods” would be associated with a higher risk of hospital-reported “perinatal mental disorders” for minority populations, while no such association would exist for white mothers due to systemic racism.
“Perinatal” generally refers to the time soon before a birth and up to a year after giving birth.
However, the paper’s authors found that for black, Asian, and Pacific Islander mothers, living in poorer neighborhoods was associated with a lower risk of pregnancy-related mental health problems and that the opposite was true for white mothers.