The Fight for Birth Justice in NYC
By: Carlina Rivera
Tags: New York City, Maternal Health, New York City Council, NYC, Birth Justice

The Fight for Birth Justice in NYC

On April 17, Amber Rose Isaac tweeted her experience dealing with incompetent care during her final weeks of pregnancy. Four days later, Amber was lost to a c-section gone wrong.

On July 2, Sha-Asia Washington went to the hospital for a routine stress test and took smiling pictures from her hospital bed. Hours later, she was gone.

I wish we didn’t have to keep holding hearings to solve these systemic, fatal issues in our health care system. I wish we didn’t have to have rallies to ask that the most powerful elected officials in New York City address the maternal mortality and morbidity crisis plaguing our hospitals.

But it’s painfully clear that the problem has yet to be properly addressed, and though the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this crisis nationwide, we know it’s not a new one.

Our city desperately needs birth justice, and it must be addressed with an intersectional approach: The maternal mortality and morbidity crisis has and continues to disproportionately impact women of color—specifically Black women, who are twelve times more likely to die due to pregnancy and childbirth, and three times more likely to suffer from morbidities than white women in New York City.

As a woman of color and lifelong New Yorker, I refuse to stand by and wait for yet another preventable maternal death while the Administration fails to deliver a solution.

That’s why, in an ongoing effort to closely examine the systems continuing to fail New Yorkers, I’m fighting for the best possible legislative actions with the guidance of those who’ve tragically felt the impact of this crisis firsthand, and especially those who work on its frontlines every single day: our city’s birth workers.

Midwives and doulas across New York City intimately understand the needs of those in their care, and we know that the presence of birth workers—whether in hospitals, at birthing centers, or in patients’ homes—significantly decreases the likelihood of complications rooted in negligence. This is especially true when factoring in the systemic racism that often leaves Black women disbelieved or ignored when they raise concerns throughout their pregnancy.

That said, access to doula and midwifery support relies on many factors, including:

awareness that the services exist, resources to pay for doula and midwife care, and receptivity of hospital staff to the important role of birth workers

For this reason, I believe our next action must be to increase access to midwife-led birth centers citywide, so our birth workers can safely and securely do what they do best.

The Council Committees on Women and Gender Equity, Health, and Hospitals all held a joint hearing earlier this month to hear four pieces of legislation with the goal of creating more accessibility to birth workers in New York City:

1. Intro 2017: Visitation policy guidelines for hospitals during public health emergencies

This bill would require the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) to develop voluntary guidelines for hospital visitation policies in the event of a public health emergency, such as COVID-19. There’s been significant confusion over whether or not birth workers could accompany patients in hospitals when giving birth, and it’s clear we can’t afford the losses that come with the negligence that ensues with birth workers’ absence. These guidelines would be distributed to hospitals, posted on the DOHMH website, and submitted to city officials.

2. Intro 2042: Posting information about midwives online

This bill would require DOHMH to post information about licensed midwives, including the services they offer and how to access them, on their website. Because one of the main barriers to midwife care is people’s lack of awareness of the care itself, this would create more accessibility to the information New Yorkers would need to opt into midwife care.

3. Reso 1239: Making doulas more accessible to individuals with Medicaid and those without health insurance

Ensuring access to birth workers means little if it’s not coupled with the ability for people of all income statuses to utilize the care. That’s why it’s vital that birth worker accessibility remains untied to having a certain type of health insurance, or any at all. If low-income women can’t access attentive maternal care, this crisis isn’t going anywhere.

4. Reso 1408: Accreditation, approval, and operation of midwifery birth centers (A.10440/S.8307)

We need the New York State legislature to amend the public health law to ensure that midwife-led birth centers can be accredited, approved, and operated with ease. Removing burdensome approval processes from birth centers will allow them to more effectively serve their communities.