Rochelle Humes speaks to The Voice about The Black Maternity Scandal documentary

A black-owned production company approached Rochelle to make the documentary after failing to get mainstream backing

Rochelle Humes
DETERMINED: Rochelle said she's keen to use her platform to make a difference and is donating her fee to the cause (Photo by Mark Cuthbert/UK Press via Getty Images)

ON MONDAY (March 29) at 8 pm, Channel 4 will air a documentary titled The Black Maternity Scandal

Presenter and mother-of-three Rochelle Humes looks into why black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth. She became aware of the issue through her own family, data and the FIVE X MORE campaign whose petition received over 187,000 signatures and was recently nominated for the Petition Campaign of the Year Award. 

“We’ve heard whisperings but to hear those figures and to know that maybe everyone isn’t paranoid…it’s not the way that somebody took it, that’s facts. I just felt compelled to delve more into that and look at why,” Rochelle explains.

She was approached to make the documentary last year by black owned production company Proper Content who were struggling to get this issue into the mainstream. At the time, she was pregnant with her son Blake.

“I’ve met so many brilliant women that have been campaigning for years and fighting the fight and if I can use my platform to amplify that message and bring it to the mainstream, I’m here for that seven days of the week,” the presenter told The Voice.

Rochelle is certain that racism plays a part in this complex problem. The documentary highlights that black women are often not heard, especially when vocalising pain or when they feel like something is not right. 

“We spend a lot of our time telling women to speak up which I think puts the blame back on the black woman,” Rochelle tells The Voice

“The problem is, if I’m not listened to, and I’m going to be seen as aggressive for speaking out because I’m in pain – why would I speak up? Nobody’s listening and I think that is what it kept coming back down to.”

Near misses

The documentary highlights that although the statistics on black maternal mortality are shocking, they don’t account for other traumatic birth experiences – which they call ‘near misses’.

“It’s the most traumatic thing, super triggering, these women very nearly died,” Rochelle explains.

“Thank goodness they didn’t, but for women you’ll see in the documentary, they’re not accounted for and that baffles me.”

Jade Ajao, aged 31, gave birth when black women were five times more likely to die in childbirth. During her second pregnancy she was giving birth to twins, and had a planned caesarean section. 

After her surgery, Jade experienced what is described as a ‘near miss’, almost losing her life.

“On one hand, I feel fortunate that it was a near miss, it could have been much worse. On the other hand, I worry about how many women this actually happens to,“ she shares.

While in hospital, Jade was told that she would be offered therapy but unfortunately, this didn’t happen. 

Jade shares her experiences in the documentary

She tells The Voice that milestones and celebrations like her daughters first birthday always bring her back.

“I always try and remain positive, but there was a niggling thought in the back of my mind that if things went wrong, it [her twin’s birthday] would have been the anniversary of my death. Even my 31st birthday last year, it was more of a celebration of life,” she shares.

Like many others, Jade would like to see the government make a solid commitment to addressing this disparity. Though the production company reached out to the government multiple times, they declined to take part in the documentary.

Looking forward

Rochelle believes the government’s commitment to this issue is “not good enough” and hopes this documentary applies more pressure ahead of a Parliamentary debate on April 19.

She says her interest in this topic extends beyond the documentary and she’s passionate about bringing long-term change. In that vein, she’s donated her fee for the documentary to the FIVEXMORE campaign and co-founder Tinuke Awe.

“The campaign takes a two-pronged approach, we try to get those in government those in power to do something about what is going on,” Tinuke explains.

“But we also speak to the women at the grassroots level. We make sure that we are letting them know of their rights and how to advocate for themselves. We’ve also got a birth preparation course that we offer to women for free.”

Tinuke co-founded award-winning campaign Five X More

Given that NHS England recently announced an extra £95m in funding for maternity care after a report from Shrewsbury and Telford’s NHS Trust found more than 1,800 cases of poor maternity care, The Voice hopes some of this funding is allocated to assist black people giving birth.

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