Ministers must set a deadline for ending the “appalling” discrepancy that sees four times as many Black women die in childbirth, MPs have demanded.
The Commons Women and Equalities Committee accused the Government of taking “insufficient” action in tackling the problem.
It said it was "frankly shameful" the disparities, which have been known about for 20 years, still existed today.
MPs said they are “concerned” ministers and NHS leaders have “underestimated” the extent racism plays in the inequalities.
The Committee said staff shortages were also a major issue. The Royal College of Midwives has estimated a gap of more than 2,000 midwives.
MPs said they supported a demand for a £200-350million uplift in annual maternity funding that was first called for by the Health and Social Care Committee when now-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt was its chair.
Missing and inadequate data collection on ethnicity was another “persistent challenge” MPs found, as well black women being regularly underrepresented in research.
It comes after the Mirror revealed yesterday a taskforce that ministers promised would meet every two months to deal with the issue has not met since last July.
Today’s report is critical of ministers’ handling of the taskforce and said it “remains concerned” the multiple and complex reasons underlying the disparities, including racism, are not mentioned.
It wants the taskforce to publish a clear measure of its success and update the Committee on a six-monthly basis.
Caroline Nokes, the chair of the committee, warned that improvements “are not happening quickly enough”.
She said that maternity services are “stretched to [their] limits” and need extra funding to resolve staffing shortages.
“We are also afraid the Government and NHS have not fully grasped that racism has played a key part in the complex reasons underlying the disparities, and that eradicating it is part of the solution,” she added.
“Government must be more ambitious and set a national target to end disparities. It is frankly shameful that we have known about these disparities for at least 20 years. It cannot take another 20 to resolve.”
Shadow Women and Equalities Secretary Anneliese Dodds said: "Maternal deaths are a thankfully rare tragedy, but the fact they have risen on the Conservatives' watch and the stark disparities in terms of ethnicity are, quite frankly, shameful.
"The Conservatives need to urgently get a grip of this extremely serious issue. Labour is committed to closing this glaring maternal mortality gap and addressing such structural inequalities through a landmark Race Equality Act."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “While the NHS is already one of the safest places to give birth in the world, we are absolutely clear that we must ensure maternity care is of the same high standard, regardless of race.
“We’ve invested £165 million since 2021 to grow the maternity workforce and are promoting careers in midwifery with an extra 3,650 training places per year, while every local NHS maternity system has a plan in place to tackle disparities on a local level.
“The Maternity Disparities Taskforce – a collective of mothers, clinicians and key organisations – is being chaired today by Minister Maria Caulfield to focus on how we can eradicate disparities and improve maternity outcomes for all mothers.”
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