Medical professionals and elected officials gathered Friday morning at Brooklyn Law School to discuss maternal health disparities facing black expectant mothers.

The discussion comes as the infant mortality rate has risen for the first time in two decades, according to the enters for Disease Control and Prevention. It shot up 3% in 2022.

The roundtable was hosted by the law school and Assemblymember Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.

“People are dying, and nothing's been done. So, right now we're going to make sure that people are accountable. We are going to make sure our systems are accountable, our hospitals, our doctors, our healthcare workers, everybody should be accountable and making sure that people, expectant mothers are safe and babies are not dying," said Hermelyn.

Several medical professionals from NYC Health + Hospitals and Weill Cornell Medicine were in attendance.

They discussed how to navigate Black maternal health, bias, and the unfair healthcare system. One of the biggest takeaways was that lowering the death rate starts well before mothers are pregnant with proper healthcare.

The stakeholders will now take what they learned and bring it back to their respective institutions.