NEW YORK — New York will launch a citywide program to provide mothers with free access to doulas, Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday, deploying a relatively small infantry of childbirth experts in high-need areas before expanding across the five boroughs.
Adams, who hopes to significantly reduce the huge racial gaps in fatal pregnancy-related complications, moved to fulfill a campaign promise with the announcement and said the city will start by offering free doula access in 33 neighborhoods.
“The reality is Black women are treated differently when they go for health care,” the mayor said in a news conference at the city-run Brownsville Neighborhood Health Action Center in Brooklyn. “We have to be honest about it if we want to fix it.”
