The City Council passed a set of bills intended to at least partly address the problems of maternal morbidity and mortality, which, like so many health issues, disproportionately affect low-income women of color.
Every year in New York City, more than 3,000 women experience a life-threatening event during childbirth, and about 30 women die from a pregnancy-related cause.
Though breastfeeding rates are up statewide, only a tiny proportion of new mothers breastfeed without using formula in many of New York City’s low-income communities. WIC is trying to change that.
City statistics indicate race, poverty, age, access to healthcare and even whether a patient really wanted to have a baby all have dramatic effects on the risks different women face. Neighborhoods also matter.
Over the course of pregnancy and the first postpartum year, one in seven women will suffer from depression. The city’s public hospitals are hoping to screen all mothers and prevent up to 3,000 cases annually, but that’s no simple task.
Maternal morbidity—moms who get really sick before or after childbirth, sometimes with years-long effects—is a growing problem in New York. Racial health disparities are part of the picture, but so is the uneven quality of the hospitals different communities use.