More than 1,000 pregnant New Yorkers received free doula services last year through a city initiative aimed at improving maternal health outcomes and reducing disparities in nonwhite communities, according to a new report from the city health department.
The total exceeded the goal set by the Adams administration’s Citywide Doula Initiative, designed to increase access to doulas among the expecting parents who might benefit the most. But the new data also shows these non-clinical support professionals are still far from becoming a birthing fixture. And doulas remain most popular among white New Yorkers and Brooklynites, compared to other groups and boroughs.
The report found that patients who received doula services through the Citywide Doula Initiative between 2022 and 2024 were slightly less likely to have C-sections or give birth preterm than the overall birthing populations in the neighborhoods the city was targeting. The rate of babies born with low birth weights was slightly higher among the group that used doulas…