The maternal mortality rate of Black women in the U.S. is over three times that of white women, according to a 2021 article in the American Journal of Public Health that analyzed vital statistics.
Through a new program called The Black Maternal Child Health Initiative, the county health department will give $365,000 to the Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network, $330,000 to St. John's Riverside Hospital and $300,000 to Birth from the Earth.
Lower Hudson Valley Perinatal Network, which serves Greenburgh, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains and Yonkers, will be able to fund two community health workers and a licensed master social worker for a program involving prenatal and postpartum home visits.
Visit the Website: www.hudsonvalleychrf.org
St. John’s Riverside Hospital will use the funds for two data analysts to support the recently established Black Maternal & Child Center of Excellence and provide implicit bias training for the hospital's maternity staff and medical students.
Visit the Website: riversidehealth.org
Birth from the Earth, a Yonkers-based agency dedicated to childbirth education, will use the money to expand its work engaging Black birthing parents and their families through three new roles. It will also be able to train five people as doulas, expand its prenatal and birthing consultations, and create a database of laws and policies related to culturally competent care.
Visit the Website: birthfromtheearth.org
Dr. Cheryl Brannan, who founded Sister to Sister International in Yonkers and has been working on improvements to Black maternal health care for years, said Sister to Sister is also working with the county health department on a dashboard to track outcomes. Brannan was a guest of Schumer's at the State of the Union on Tuesday.
"We're going to change birth outcomes in Westchester County for Black women," she said.
Visit the Website: www.s2si.org
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