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