Are pregnant women in New York City getting equal care?
That's what public radio station WNYC set out to study after a recent study conducted by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene found that the severe maternal morbidity rates in New York City were 1.6 times the national average.
WNYC's health care and medical reporter Fred Mogul said he found women in lower-income neighborhoods, particularly black moms, were more likely to have risky complications during childbirth than other women, even those on the same socioeconomic level. Health experts and doctors told WNYC that hospital culture had a lot to do with it: hospitals that were more “patient-centered” and required lots of staff training generally had lower complication rates, they said.
(To view the five-year study of moms and problems with deliveries in city hospitals, click here)
WNYC’s original report was supported by the Center for Health Journalism at USC Annenberg School of Complications.
