CM Narcisse on H&H maternal health programs and funding

But anyway, maternal health services.

There is a 3.5 million in H&H fiscal 2027 executive budget for maternal medical home services, including an additional of 513,000 baseline

added to this plan for maternal mobility and mortality reduction.

What specific maternity-related program does the additional $513 funding support, and which H&H location does?

I mean, it's going to be operated out.

Right.

So we're very excited about this funding and very appreciative.

It will pay for two additional social workers and a fetal heart monitoring program.

And also car seats.

And portable cribs for new mothers.

So really valuable, valuable services.

And portable crib, that's good.

That can help some parents.

Which other maternal health-related programs are successful at H&H?

Well, I think, I mean, in general, our overall numbers are better than the overall New York City numbers.

So, you know, we do well.

I mean, OB is a very different issue than what I do, internal medicine, because with OB, each time you expect a healthy baby.

Right.

When you're taking care of people who are sick, you understand that sometimes things may not go well.

But OB is meant to be a happy event.

And so anytime either the mother or the baby is hurt, for us, it's very serious and very negative.

On the other hand, it's always known that a certain number of outcomes will not be what we want it to be.

Our job is to make it as good as we possibly can.

A lot of the morbidity, we've been teaching people, people hear maternal morbidity and mortality and they think that means the woman

is hurt or loses her life while delivering, when really it's in the year after.

It's a very complicated dynamic.

undoubtedly has to do with depression and stress and the difficulties of being a new mom.

And in some cases, there's also mental health issues or substance use issues.

It's a complicated, difficult time.

And our job is to do as good a job supporting those moms and those families as we possibly can.

Thank you.

Well, we added, we say the year after delivery is the most crucial moment that you should have support.

So what kind of programs that H&H have to offer to help those process diminish?

So we do everything from, you know, follow-up visits with social workers through mental health practice.

We are also doing a lot of work on trying to arrange visits together with the mom and the baby

because we know mothers prioritize the health care of their babies but don't always prioritize their own health care.

And so we're creating at all the hospitals joint visits to do a better job of bringing the women in.

Very nice.

And how often do they receive those visits?

As often as necessary.

We are always, as a system, because it's come up in several of the questions, we never cap volume.

Our view is...

that there are things we do, there might be things we don't do, but if we do them, we do them for everybody who needs it.

If we provide mental health services, we'll see you as often as you need it.

All services should be guided by clinical need, not by protocol.

Okay, so there's no cap to the visit.

Okay.

Have you identified a need to increase resources for maternal health and mental health programs at H&H?

Yeah, well, again, this new funding will really help us quite a lot.

And it's going to enable us, we're going to have a new obstetric program that looks at the baby, at the fetal monitors and alerts us when there's an issue with the baby.

And I think that's going to make a big difference for the actual deliveries.

Appreciate that.