New PTBi Research on Preterm Birth and Police Violence
It is known that communities of color are exposed to more police surveillance and use-of-force. In particular, Black residents are the most likely to be victims of fatal police violence. However, there has been little research published on police violence and birth outcomes. Thankfully, researchers like Dr. Dana Goin, postdoctoral scholar at UCSF's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, who took part in our July 2021 Collaboratory, are actively working to conduct studies in this space.
While health inequities arise from being a physical victim of police violence, witnessing or hearing about police violence also has detrimental health effects, such as adverse mental health outcomes resulting in depression, PTSD, anxiety, and worse. Knowing this, Goin sought out to study the relationship between fatal police violence and preterm delivery.
What Goin and her co-researchers found was
- fatal police violence is associated with increased hazard of preterm birth (34-36 weeks)
- the increased hazard translated to 3-5% increased risk of preterm birth as compared to birthing people who were not exposed
- associations for moderate preterm birth are larger for Black mothers when the victim was also Black.
Goin called for more researchers to think about the implications of policing in places like hospitals and communities.
Given that police violence disproportionately occurs in communities of color, affects communities of color, and is rooted in the institutional authority of the state, it is a form of structural racism that contributes to health inequities.
Dana Goin, PTBi Researcher
Fellow panelist Dr. Amy Murtha, chair of UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, shared, “I am […] excited to have more data to help inform policies. From my position — which is clearly a position of power/privilege — I oftentimes lean on the science to move things forward. Hearing [Goin]’s work feels upsetting, but also at the same time, an opportunity to move the conversation forward in a more meaningful way.”
Policing in Hospitals
Particularly in hospitals, the presence of police and policing has continuously caused harm, making people of color feel unsafe in the place they are seeking care. Dr. Katrina Ciraldo, another panelist at the event, shared DPH Must Divest’s origin story, mission and goals. A video of Asmara Gebre, one of the founders of DPH Must Divest, took the point home explaining Gebre’s jarring experience with the SF General Sheriff’s that led her to go on a strike to demand the removal of the Sheriff’s presence.
Out of the 111 use-of-force incidents in the emergency room, 70% of them were directed at Black patients although Black patients only make up 24% of ER visits.
We are proud to host this Collaboratory that shared different perspectives on hard topics and emphasize that further research and action must be taken to protect our community. We want to note that the viewpoints of our speakers are their own and that in an effort to prioritize hosting this event in a trauma-informed way, we did not invite any law enforcement representatives to participate.
Speakers
Katrina Ciraldo, MD | DPH Must Divest
Katrina Ciraldo, MD is a family physician who is nearing completion of an Addiction Medicine Fellowship in the Department of HIV, ID, and Global Medicine. She trained at Boston Medical Center and then completed an obstetrics fellowship at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. She is interested in improving the health of people who use drugs and alcohol, especially focused on pregnant and parenting people. She advocates for just policies and believes in non-judgmental clinical care that can counter the disproportionate harms of the ongoing racist War on Drugs. During her fellowship, she has been a prenatal provider at Team Lily, an SFGH-based clinic for pregnant and postpartum people with substance use disorders, homelessness, and/or severe mental illness. She has also been a member of DPH Must Divest, advocating for increased safety for patients and staff at SFGH through removal of law enforcement and investment in trauma-informed, accountable, and effective alternatives.
Dana Goin, Ph.D. | UCSF Researcher
Dana Goin is a postdoctoral scholar for the UCSF's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment. She received a PhD in Epidemiology and an MA in Biostatistics from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on social and environmental factors that shape population-level differences in maternal and perinatal health and the biologic and behavioral mechanisms that explain those disparities. She is also a methodologist who works to identify and address limitations in current epidemiologic research practices, with the goal of producing more impactful research for clinical and policy decision-makers. Dana will be presenting her paper, Occurrence of fatal police violence during pregnancy and hazard of preterm birth in California.
Tiana McMillan | PTBi Community Advisory Board - Fresno
Tiana McMillan is a PTBi Community Advisory Board Member and a proud native of Fresno. In addition to working full time in identity theft, she is a mom of a one-year-old, and a passionate advocate for mental health, mothers and children, and Black families. She has recently been certified as an RI International Peer Support Specialist in maternal mental health.
Amy Murtha, MD | Chair, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences, Perinatologist
Dr. Amy Murtha is a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine, which focuses on managing the health concerns of high-risk mothers and fetuses before, during, and for a short period after pregnancy. Her research has focused on understanding the causes and management of preterm birth. She chairs the UCSF Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences.
