CM Narcisse on maternal mortality disparities and doula program

And quickly, black and Latino mothers continue to experience higher rates of maternal mobility and mortality than other groups.

What is DOHMH doing to reduce the disparities?

Great.

We're going to take those one at a time.

I'm going to kick it to Aaron on the reimbursement, and then I'll take the second part of the question.

Yeah, thanks for the question.

So we certainly aim to ensure timely reimbursement for all of our providers, including these folks.

If there are issues, we're always happy to work with them directly.

And actually, our chief nonprofit officer position is there for exactly that type of work.

So we're happy to have that.

You can see that the timing things, even though we want to continue with the hearing.

Go ahead.

Should I continue?

No, finish.

Finish the answer.

So, yeah, you're right.

So black and Latina women face up to four to five times the likelihood of dying from pregnancy in the city, and that's unacceptable.

We have a number of concrete initiatives that we leverage in a targeted way.

The first one that I'm most proud of is the Citywide Doula Initiative.

This is a program that pairs at-risk pregnant people with doulas.

to help them basically walk through the whole process of pregnancy with someone by their side.

We've had thousands and thousands and thousands of people who have been served by the CDI, the Citywide Dual Initiative.

We've had zero maternal deaths as part of this program.

I love that improvement.

An astounding.

Okay.

Due to time in the chair, it seemed like we want to keep the time, so I'm going to pass it on back to you.

Yeah, we'll definitely follow up for the rest of the questions that were not asked.

And then, Phil, Councilmember, sorry, Phil, Councilmember Wong.