A Guardian investigation has revealed systemic racial disparities in how women receive pain relief during childbirth, highlighting an "ethnicity pain gap" where the distress of women of color is frequently minimized or ignored by medical staff.
Julie Hammond, a 35-year-old mother of three from Kent, described her traumatic experience during an emergency caesarean section at 35 weeks.
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Despite informing her anaesthetist that she could still feel her abdomen and move her legs after a spinal block, her concerns were dismissed.
"It's difficult to put into words just how traumatic it was," Hammond said.
"I could just feel myself panicking throughout the whole procedure, while also trying to tell myself to calm down."
She recalled being told to relax and not worry, but later discovered from a consultant that her experience was abnormal.
Hammond noted that even healthcare professionals from minority backgrounds can internalize systemic biases about pain.
"My anaesthetist was an ethnic minority, too, so at the time I thought it can't be racism," she said.
"It was only later that I realized, even regardless of your skin colour, you can still internalise systemic racism."
A 2016 study found that false biological beliefs, such as Black people having thicker skin or less sensitive nerve endings, contribute to racial bias in pain perception.
Further research from 2023 shows that standardizing postpartum pain protocols does not eliminate these disparities.
Adewole Adamson, associate professor at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas, noted that awareness has increased but the gap remains slow to close.
