The rise and racial gap in maternal mortality and morbidity in the US growing public health crisis. The US maternal mortality rate is double that of peer countries such as the UK and Canada. Even more striking, Black women are 243% more likely to die from childbirth-related causes. According to research, to address the rise and racial gap in maternal mortality in the US, public health response will need to incorporate underrepresented stakeholders, including midwives, doulas, and reproductive justice advocates. I conducted an interview study to understand the collaboration practices of public health experts and their perspective on working with underrepresented groups. I found that articulation work practices in public health limit the ability of experts to initiate contact with the very stakeholders they need to build relationships with to address the rise in maternal mortality. In the second study, I conducted an Asynchronous Remote Community with birth professionals to understand how they navigated the power dynamics in their collaborations with the public health system. Using articulation work and intersectionality-informed analysis as sensitizing concepts, I argue that we should consider public health crises under the umbrella of crisis informatics, expand our definition of what kinds of labor should be considered articulation work, and make suggestions for strategies to improve multistakeholder collaborations addressing the rise and racial gap in maternal mortality in the US.

Creator

• Walker, Ashley Marie

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-p677-nc30

Subject

• Information science
• Computer science

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:15932
• etdadmin_upload_879350

Keyword

• articulation work

Date created

• 2022-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright