Listen or watch live tonight on O.N.M.E. Sounds web radio: Around the Table Central Valley Black Health Community Forum Series addresses maternal and environmental health with health advocates
The Around the Table show will be broadcast in front of a live audience tonight; exclusively brought to you by community partner, Covered California
By ONME News
On web radio station, O.N.M.E. Sounds, join news show host, Julia Dudley Najieb for the Central Valley Black Health Community Forum Series starting on Monday, October 19, at 8:00 PM PST, with two more episodes thereafter.
Listen to local health advocates, experts and community members tonight having a candid, in-depth, holistic discussion with suggested solutions about Black health, palliative care, environmental health and end-of life necessities.
The forum series is exclusively brought to you by community partner, Covered California
Open enrollment is when all eligible Californians can apply for a health or dental insurance plan through Covered California. It lasts from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31. Click the link above to find out more.
For Black Families in California’s Central Valley, Health Equity Must Span a Lifetime
FRESNO, Calif. — For Black residents across California’s Central Valley, the health-care challenges that begin before birth can persist through older age and the final months of life.
Tonight's show will focus on the following two areas: maternal health and environmental health.
Maternal health: a persistent emergency
The disparity is stark. The California Maternal Health Blueprint says Black mothers are more than three times as likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth as the state average. Nationally, the CDC reported a 2024 maternal mortality rate of 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births for Black women, compared with 14.2 for White women. The report defines a maternal death as one occurring during pregnancy or within 42 days after pregnancy from a related or aggravated cause.
California’s blueprint names racism among the social determinants driving inequity and says plainly that “unacceptable disparities persist.” For Valley families, distance, maternity-service closures, transportation and a thin specialist workforce can compound the effects of bias. The practical response is equally concrete: early prenatal care, blood-pressure monitoring, postpartum follow-up, continuity with trusted clinicians, and access to doulas and midwives who understand Black patients’ experiences. Families should also know that urgent warning signs—including severe headache, chest pain, heavy bleeding, trouble breathing or thoughts of self-harm—require immediate medical attention.
Environmental health: the risks outside the clinic
Health inequities also begin in the air, water and neighborhoods where people live and work. The Central Valley faces overlapping exposure to fine-particle pollution from traffic, industry, agriculture and wildfire smoke; extreme heat; pesticides; and groundwater contamination. The California Air Resources Board links particulate and toxic air pollution with asthma, cardiovascular and respiratory disease, lung cancer and poorer neurodevelopmental outcomes in children, and says many disadvantaged communities experience higher exposures and health impacts than affluent neighborhoods. Race matters within that burden: a 2025 CARB review found that air-pollution exposure often affects racial and ethnic groups unequally. Heat adds another threat. The Public Policy Institute of California reported that Black Californians had the state’s highest heat-related mortality rate—0.28 deaths per 100,000, about 1.5 times the overall rate—and projected two additional weeks of health-impacting heat events each summer in the Central Valley by 2050. California’s CalEnviroScreen lets residents examine local burdens, including air quality, pesticide use and drinking-water threats. These hazards can worsen pregnancy complications, asthma, heart disease, diabetes and mental strain, making clean-air enforcement, safe drinking water, shade, cooling access and worker protections essential health interventions.
Listen or watch live tonight at O.N.M.E. Sounds:
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