April 11, 2026

Today marks the first day of Black Maternal Health Week. There is a quote that has stayed with us, that we keep coming back to when we think about the work ahead to protect Black Mamas and Babies: “We must protect everyone’s first environment…the womb.”

It seems obvious when you say it out loud. And yet, across clinical practice, public health research, and environmental policy, the connection between what surrounds a pregnant person and what happens inside their body remains chronically underfunded, under-explored, and far too often ignored, especially when that pregnant person is Black.

Black women in the United States die from pregnancy-related causes at two to three times the rate of white women, a disparity that holds across income levels and education.(1) The conversation about why this happens has slowly yet rightfully expanded beyond individual behavior and individual clinical encounters, but there is still a major gap: environmental health. The air outside the window. The water from the tap. The products on the shelf. The mold in the walls. These are not peripheral concerns. They are, for millions of Black mothers, the conditions of daily life, and they are quietly shaping birth outcomes in ways that our healthcare system has yet to really grapple with.

What We Know, and What We’re Still Pretending We Don’t

The science is not actually in dispute and can back up these facts regarding the intersection of misogynoir and environmental racism. Exposure to air pollution like particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide and ozone, during pregnancy is associated with preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirth.(2) Phthalates and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals found in common personal care products, cleaning supplies, and food packaging have been linked to preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and preterm delivery.(3) Inadequate housing with lead paint & lead in water, mold, pest infestations, and poor ventilation compounds these risks at every trimester.(4) Let us not forget that food environments matter too as research consistently connects limited access to nutrient-dense foods with adverse maternal and infant outcomes, while ultra-processed food consumption during pregnancy is associated with gestational complications.(5) Food apartheid is very much a threat to Black births as Black communities frequently experience food insecurity.

Among so many things, what is even more disturbing is the degree to which mainstream obstetric care, public health practice, and research funding actually center these exposures when caring for and studying Black pregnant women.

Black communities are disproportionately located near industrial facilities, highways, and other pollution sources which is a pattern rooted in decades of redlining and current racialized zoning and policy.(6) When we talk about environmental health and pregnancy, we are also talking about environmental racism. These lethal pollutants are not distributed by accident as they are very much so tied to race.

What Young, Gifted & Green is Doing About It

In 2024, Young, Gifted & Green launched Black Maternal & Environmental Health (BMEH) Day to create a dedicated, annual moment of advocacy, education, and community power around this intersection which takes place the first Thursday in April just ahead of Black Maternal Health Week.

Since April 2024, cities and states across the country issued official proclamations recognizing Black Maternal & Environmental Health Day including Michigan, Washington D.C., Louisville (Jefferson County), St. Louis, Little Rock, Shelby County (Memphis), Tulsa, Birmingham, Baltimore, Shreveport, Durham, Milwaukee County, and two new additions we are especially proud of Detroit, MI and Dayton, OH, and many more. In total, more than 4.1 million Black women now live in cities and states that have formally proclaimed this day, and we are up from 4,288 social media accounts reached in 2024 to nearly 22,000 by 2026. That is not a small thing. Proclamations matter because they signal to health departments, hospitals, and local policymakers that this issue belongs on the agenda.

Our partner network has grown to include some of the most respected names in maternal health, public health, environmental justice, and community advocacy. Among them are the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, The Bullard Center, the American Public Health Association, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, EcoMadres, Moms Clean Air Force, Rachel’s Network, Children’s Environmental Health Network, The Wisdom Institute, and many more.

We know that digital & social media reach and proclamations are tools, not destinations. What we actually need is transformation in how practitioners treat patients, how researchers design studies, and how institutions allocate resources.

A Direct Call to Practitioners and Researchers

If you are a clinician, a public health researcher, a policy advocate, or a funder, this section is for you.

For clinicians: When you see a Black pregnant patient, the standard intake form is not enough. Ask about their neighborhood. Ask about their housing conditions: mold, pest treatments, water quality, proximity to highways or industrial sites. Ask what personal care products they use, because many products marketed specifically to Black women contain higher concentrations of endocrine-disrupting chemicals than products in the general market.(7) These questions are not outside your scope of practice. They are exactly within it. If you don’t screen for environmental exposures, you are missing exposures that may be more predictive of their outcome than their BMI.

Connect patients to community health workers and doulas who understand local environmental conditions. Refer them to resources on safer product substitutions, indoor air quality improvements, and tenant rights when housing conditions are hazardous.

For researchers: We need studies that are designed from the start to measure environmental exposures in Black pregnant populations, not as a subgroup or an afterthought. We need bio-monitoring. We need longitudinal data on how cumulative environmental burden (cumulative impacts) living near a highway AND using chemical hair relaxers AND living in older housing stock, for example, compounds risk in ways that single-exposure studies will never capture. We need community-based participatory research models that actually center the knowledge and priorities of Black mothers rather than treating them as subjects.

And we need to publish this work. The evidence base on environmental contributors to Black maternal mortality lags significantly behind the evidence base on other contributing factors. That gap is a choice and a reflection of what research institutions have historically decided is worth funding and worth studying.

For policy advocates and funders: Local proclamations are a meaningful first step, but they need to be followed by actual investment. Fund community-based environmental health programs in areas with high Black maternal mortality. Require environmental health assessments in housing developments, not just environmental impact assessments. Advocate for stricter regulation of chemicals in personal care products, with particular attention to products in markets that primarily serve women of color. Push for cumulative impact analysis in environmental permitting so that communities already carrying a disproportionate pollution burden are not continually absorbing new sources.

Practical Steps Anyone Can Take Right Now

For those reading this who want to act today and not wait for policy to catch up, take a look at these tips:

Know your air. The EPA’s AirNow tool provides real-time air quality data by zip code. On high-pollution days, especially during pregnancy, keeping windows closed and using an air purifier with a HEPA filter makes a real difference.

Rethink your products. The Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep database rates personal care products for chemical safety. It’s free, searchable by product name, and takes about five minutes to check the products already in your bathroom.

Filter your water. If you don’t know what’s in your tap water, the EWG Tap Water Database can tell you. A certified filter (not just a Brita pitcher…shade, but no shade), but an NSF-certified filter for your specific contaminants as it is one of the most effective interventions available to households.

Push your hospital or birth center. Ask whether the facility has an environmental health policy. Ask whether their clinical staff receives any training on environmental exposures and reproductive health. The question alone signals to administrators that patients expect this.

Join the movement. Young, Gifted & Green’s BMEH Day only grows in power when more organizations sign on as partners, when more cities issue proclamations, and when more people demand that their local and state governments treat Black maternal environmental health as a public health priority. Visit younggiftedgreen.org to learn how to get involved, or if you are in a local, state, or national group or organization, you can sign up today to become a partner for BMEH Day 2027.

Looking Forward

We are proud of what three years of Black Maternal & Environmental Health Day has built. But pride and urgency coexist, because the data on Black maternal mortality has not moved nearly enough, and the role of environmental factors in that data remains underdiscussed and underacted upon.

The womb is the first environment. It is shaped by every environment that surrounds it…the air, the water, the food, the home, the neighborhood, the accumulated stressors of living in a body that America has consistently deemed less worthy of protection. Changing that requires researchers who design studies worthy of the question, clinicians who ask it at every encounter, policymakers who legislate as if the answer matters, and a movement willing to say so loudly every year not just for one day or one week, but every day in between.

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References

1. Petersen EE, Davis NL, Goodman D, et al. Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy-Related Deaths — United States, 2007–2016. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2019;68(35):762-765. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6835a3.htm
2. Bekkar B, Pacheco S, Basu R, DeNicola N. Association of Air Pollution and Heat Exposure With Preterm Birth, Low Birth Weight, and Stillbirth in the US: A Systematic Review. JAMA Network Open. 2020;3(6):e208243. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2767260
3. Helm JS, Nishioka M, Brody JG, Rudel RA, Dodson RE. Measurement of endocrine disrupting and asthma-associated chemicals in hair products used by Black women. Environmental Research. 2018;165:448-458. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935118301518 | Paula WO, et al. Maternal consumption of ultra-processed foods-rich diet and perinatal outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrients. 2022;14(15):3242. https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/15/3242
4. Swope CB, Hernández D. Housing as a determinant of health equity: A conceptual model. Social Science & Medicine. 2019;243:112571. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7146083/
5. Talebi S, et al. The association between ultra-processed food and common pregnancy adverse outcomes: a dose-response systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 2024;24:369. https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-024-06489-w
6. Mohai P, Pellow D, Roberts JT. Environmental justice. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 2009;34:405-430. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-environ-082508-094348
7. Helm JS, Nishioka M, Brody JG, Rudel RA, Dodson RE. Measurement of endocrine disrupting and asthma-associated chemicals in hair products used by Black women. Environmental Research. 2018;165:448-458. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29705122/

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Young, Gifted & Green is a national civil rights and environmental justice organization. Black Maternal & Environmental Health Day is held annually on first Thursday in April. Learn more and get involved at younggiftedgreen.org/initiatives. Check out our latest BMEH Day 2025-26 Report!