Westchester Insider: Westchester County Legislator Catherine Parker: Westchester County Launches Pilot Program to Offer Doulas to Qualifying Pregnant Women.

Westchester County Launches Pilot Program to Offer Doulas to Qualifying Pregnant Women

In Westchester County, Black women are more likely to deliver babies with low birth weight, more likely to have premature births, and more likely to have their babies die. With those statistics in mind – and hoping to change them – the County has launched a pilot program with the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network Children's Health and Research Foundation to offer doulas to qualifying Westchester County pregnant women.

Certified doulas have been shown to increase positive health outcomes, including reducing birth complications for the mother and the baby.  The Program will cover labor/birth and postpartum doulas, offer Medicaid to eligible pregnant mothers.

In 2019, the nationwide maternal mortality rate for black women was 44 per 100,000 births – that is two and a half times the rate for white mothers (17.9), according to the CDC. In other words, black women are two and a half times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.

The pilot program will begin with $75,000 with options to expand.