Quote:Over the last 15 years, I have had the privilege of meeting mothers and their children around the world. The universal experiences of motherhood—from the challenges of pregnancy and birth, to cooing over a newborn child—can make it seem that pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood are a great equalizer. But my own experience and my work have reinforced that motherhood remains undeniably influenced by privilege and power.

This year, more than 33 million women around the world will give birth to babies born too soon or too small—which equates to 1 in 10 babies globally—and the burden has been unequally distributed. Here in the United States, for example, Black women have a 50 percent increased risk of premature delivery compared to white women—a disparity that has remained stubbornly persistent even as overall rates of premature births have gone down. Globally, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have the highest rates of premature birth. Tragically, 90 percent of the babies born too soon in lower income countries will not survive.