Good afternoon Chair Cabán and thank you for holding this hearing today. My name is Hannah May-Powers and I am the Health and Safety Policy Analyst for the Office of Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. I’m here today because this issue is very important to the Borough President, as it is for the thousands of families with children in our borough.
One of Borough President Reynoso’s highest priorities for his time in office is to improve maternal health in Brooklyn. Today, Black mothers are 9.4 times more likely to die during or in the year after childbirth than their white counterparts. A major contributor to this unacceptable statistic is a lack of access to affordable pre- and post-partum health care and mental health care.
What does this have to do with childcare? Multiple studies have shown that pregnant and postpartum mothers in America are experiencing financial stress. This is in part due to the costs associated with prenatal care, delivery, and post-natal care. Pregnant women are also at a higher risk of experiencing domestic violence and homelessness, which can leave them with few resources following childbirth. Without adequate childcare support, they are unable to secure work that would help bring financial stability and the appropriate perinatal resources. In a study from the University of Michigan in 2021, more than half new mothers studied reported experiencing financial stress and having difficulty affording needed health care. These challenges lead to an unending cycle between financial stress and postpartum mental and physical health issues such as substance use disorders, depression, and hypertension.
Mothers’ financial stress affects children as well, and can contribute to malnutrition, poor academic performance, increased anxiety, and behavioral issues. For unborn babies, it may even mean additional health complications – a study from BMC public health earlier this year showed a direct correlation between financial stress of the mother and adverse birth outcomes such as earlier gestational age and low birth weight. Between 2015-2019 in the US, at least one-third of mothers had a second birth within 36 months of the first birth. Without adequate childcare during the pivotal moment between the first and second births, many of these families would be left in a more distressed financial state, which in turn affects the health of both children.
There is no question that the cost of childcare contributes to financial stress, especially in New York City, where the cost of good quality childcare for infants can exceed $25,000/year. This is particularly acute for new mothers – according to the Center for American Progress, the average cost of center-based childcare in New York is approximately 80% higher for infants than it is for 4-year-old preschoolers.
It is no wonder that, according to The City (the publication), in 2021, 41% of 25-54-year-old women living with children in NYC were not working, compared with just 24% of men, and of course these numbers were even higher for Black and brown women. Again, the correlation between lack of income, financial stress, and poor health outcomes becomes a vicious cycle that we must break.
I want to acknowledge that we are facing difficult financial times, and this will obviously be a costly program. However, our City’s own Economic Development Corporation estimated in 2021 that, “NYC parents leaving the private workforce or shifting from full time to part time would result in a loss of 250,000 person years of employment, $60 billion in real output, and $18.5 billion in disposable personal income over the next five years.” Essentially, we can’t afford not to do it.
Thank you to Council Member Gutierrez for putting forward this bold legislation that would bring universal childcare to our city, and for also ensuring that fair wages for the city’s childcare workforce are part of this effort. Both policies are long overdue and will be transformative for New Yorkers. Borough President Reynoso is looking forward to continuing to work with the Council on behalf of NYC’s families and childcare workers to move this proposal forward. Thank you.
