Narrowing the maternal & infant health gap w/ health equity expert Dr. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew (S05EP05)

We Can Be podcast - The Heinz Endowments

Dr. Margaret Larkins-Pettigrew, Allegheny Health Network’s first chief clinical diversity, equity and inclusion officer, wrote in a widely shared 2023 op-ed: “It is perilous to be Black and pregnant in America. We need to do better.”

The nationally respected expert in maternal and infant health equity is not afraid to speak out against health injustice or to amplify the startling differences between Black and white mothers and babies’ health outcomes – while helping forge a better way.

Dr. Larkins-Pettigrew’s expertise is especially critical in a nation where the number of Black babies who die within one year of birth is three times higher than the death rate of white babies. In Pittsburgh, where Allegheny Health Network is based, female Black infant mortality is higher than in 70% of similar-sized cities.

“When we do things that intervene and decrease those higher numbers for Black women, then we also decrease mortality rates for white women, so everyone wins,” Dr. Pettigrew tells “We Can Be” host and Endowments President Chris DeCardy. “Everything we do for one is going to affect everybody and give opportunities to all.”

With key leadership and teaching positions at University Hospitals of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University and Drexel University College of Medicine, Dr Pettigrew has been building a coalition of medical and social work professionals through the groundbreaking First Steps and Beyond initiative.

The Endowments-supported First Steps and Beyond program centers a unified care strategy that addresses both medical and social needs through an equity and justice-centered approach to care for mothers and babies. And it works, with data from a five-year study in the Cleveland metro region where the program was implemented showing a 20% decrease in maternal and infant mortality in the first year after birth.

Whether appearing on MSNBC, NBC news and PBS, writing “The Colors of My Heart: Embracing My Blackness with History, Family, Fear and Faith,” or founding medical collaboration nonprofit JUSTWONDOOR, Dr. Larkins-Pettigrew, also a U.S. Navy veteran, and her collaborators are leveling the maternal and infant health playing field – and saving lives.

“We Can Be” is hosted by Heinz Endowments President Chris DeCardy, and produced by the Endowments, Josh Franzos and Tim Murray. Theme music by Josh Slifkin. Guest and host photos by Josh Franzos. Guest inquiries may be made to Scott Roller at [e-mail].