6 hours ago
3
The city has created a so-called “stress-free zone” in a low-income Brooklyn neighborhood where new parents can get everything from free massages to mental-health screenings to combat maternal mortality.
Brownsville’s “Neighborhood Stress-Free Zone” pilot — located at the Department of Health’s Neighborhood Health Action Center Family Wellness Suite — opened in September to combat a deeply disturbing increase in the rate, which has been fueled by overdoses and suicides, officials said.
“We in New York City have historically not been very good at recognizing a post-partum birthing person … who’s experiencing depression,” said Dr. Zahirah McNatt, acting assistant commissioner for the Bureau of Brooklyn Neighborhood Health, to The Post.
“They might even go to a hospital and be sent home [during a crisis],’’ he said of struggling moms. “When that experience becomes psychosis, then we’re in a world that is harder to manage.”
The doctor said the pilot program has already helped dozens of young families in Brownsville, the city’s epicenter of deaths of moms who recently gave birth.
“Folks are coming in, and they’re being screened for different issues, whether it be their social-care needs like housing and food … or perinatal mood and anxiety disorders,” McNatt said.
The program is based on a “stress-free zone” that was created in upstate Buffalo 25 years ago.
The Brownsville initiative provides free parenting workshops, cooking classes, social groups, diaper distributions, mental-health screenings and even massages to try to lower the city’s maternal death rate by 10 percent by 2030.
The city’s latest maternal mortality figures show the number of pregnancy-associated deaths in the boroughs has been steadily rising.
There were 58 deaths in 2021 and 66 deaths in 2022, the highest number since 2016 — for a 13.7% increase, according to the latest available statistics, which were released in September.
“Overdose deaths were a main driver of this increase, representing 9% of pregnancy-related deaths among Black non-Hispanic women and birthing people in 2021 to 29% in 2022,’’ the city’s latest annual report on the issue said.
The commissioner of the city’s Department of Health, Dr. Michelle Morse, said in a statement, “Brownsville, Brooklyn—which has experienced decades of disinvestment, redlining, and unfair barriers to care—has the highest pregnancy-associated mortality rate in New York City.
“That’s why we are piloting Neighborhood Stress-Free Zones in Brownsville first: Pregnant people and new parents deserve access to the full continuum of care, from mental health support to help meeting the economic demands of parenthood.”
The effort is part of the Big Apple’s Healthy NYC initiative, which aims to increase New Yorkers’ average life expectancy to 83 years by 2030.
Through the site’s partner, Brooklyn Perinatal Network, free on-site screenings also are provided for health-related and other social needs, hopefully easing referrals for housing, nutrition and transportation services.
The location also offers perinatal massages to yoga classes, plus workshops on topics such as post-birth mental health, gestational diabetes and hypertension, lactation and nutrition.
The city-funded center’s no-cost services are paid for by the state’s Social Care Networks and contracts from its Health Equity Reform 1115 waiver amendment, which expires in 2027.
McNatt noted said she hopes the pilot will help win an extension of the waiver will save lives — and in the meantime, spur similar sites in other in-need areas such as Harlem and the East Bronx.
“Being able to fulfill this model … will hopefully encourage Medicaid to reimburse not just us, but over time, a neighborhood stress-free zone kind of in every neighborhood across the city,” she said.
“In high-income neighborhoods all over the city, women get these services,” McNatt added.
“In part, what we’re saying is that low-income, black birthing people should get the same kinds of services that lead to a healthy, joyful perinatal journey.”
English (US)