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.
The findings bolster the view that doulas in New York City are helping to improve outcomes among their clients, though it remains unclear by how much. Research has broadly shown that doulas can reduce the likelihood patients will have C-sections, give birth preterm and experience other complications, making doulas a promising addition to the birthing team.
Doulas aren’t clinicians, but they are trained to provide pregnant people with information and emotional support and can act as patient advocates once they get to the hospital.
“Doulas do more than spend time with the parent,” Mayor Eric Adams said at a press conference Monday. “They nurture them, they encourage them, they answer so many questions.”
Citywide, doulas were involved in more than 5,000 pregnancies last year, or about 6%, up from less than 5% in 2022, according to the health department report. But doulas’ popularity varies widely by borough. In Brooklyn, 10% of pregnant New Yorkers used doulas last year, while the share in Staten Island, Queens and the Bronx hovered around 2%.
White New Yorkers made up 60% of those who used doulas, compared with 16% of Black New Yorkers and 14% of Hispanic New Yorkers, city data shows.
Those differences would be even more stark without the efforts of the Citywide Doula Initiative, the health department concluded. Adams signed legislation to expand the initiative in 2022 as part of a broader effort to reduce racial disparities in maternal and infant health outcomes. The rate of pregnancy-related deaths is five times higher among Black New Yorkers than white New Yorkers, according to state data.
Last year, the state Medicaid program also began covering doula services.
