Black women in New York City are up to six times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women, with Central and East Brooklyn neighborhoods—including East Flatbush, Canarsie, Brownsville, and East New York—experiencing some of the city’s highest rates of pregnancy complications. These communities function as maternal health deserts not because hospitals are absent, but because respectful, culturally competent, and trusted care too often is. This inequitable landscape shapes the lived reality of pregnancy, birth, and postpartum care for Black mothers across the city—and demands deeper understanding and action from philanthropy.
This Clips & Conversation program invites the NYC-based philanthropic community to engage with this reality through selected excerpts from Between Two Hands, a documentary in production, that centers community midwifery practices and follows two mothers navigating the profound question of whether the healthcare system will protect them or cause harm. Set in East Flatbush and Canarsie, the film situates Brooklyn as both backdrop and battleground—where hospital closures, long travel times, and deep mistrust of institutional care intersect with resilience, advocacy, and community-rooted solutions. Midwifery emerges as one of the few spaces where families feel listened to, protected, and safe.
Following the clips, participants will engage in a facilitated discussion that weaves together storytelling, lived experience, policy context, and data-driven systems analysis. The program is intentionally designed to begin with the emotional and human experience of birth, grounding participants in the realities faced by Black mothers, before moving into deeper dialogue that examines the structural drivers of inequity and explores what it will take to shift this landscape—including the roles of midwifery, birth centers, community-based care, and philanthropic action.
Please join us for a powerful Clips & Conversation experience that centers Black maternal voices, deepens understanding, and challenges funders to consider what meaningful action looks like in transforming maternal health outcomes in New York City.
What will you learn?
- How structural racism, policy decisions, and healthcare system design shape Black maternal health outcomes in New York City—beyond individual choice or behavior
- What community midwifery and culturally responsive models of care look like in practice, and why they are trusted alternatives in maternal health deserts
- How data, lived experience, and storytelling together reveal gaps in current maternal health systems and point to more effective solutions
- What role philanthropy can play in shifting power, resourcing community-rooted care, and advancing maternal health equity across NYC
Speakers
- Speaker List in Formation
Who should attend?
All interested funders in grantmaking, health equity, and related roles. What to expect: screening of documentary clips followed by engaging conversation.
Registration
3 PM to 5:30 PM Program
Registration is required by April 13th.
Members: To register yourself and/or a colleague at your organization, please log in and click the “Register Now” link above. (No fee.)
Guests of Collaborators: Please email register@philanthropynewyork.org with your name, title, organizational affiliation, business mailing address, and phone number. Please indicate by which organizer you were invited. (No fee.)
Non-Member Funders: Please email register@philanthropynewyork.org. ($150 fee.)
In Collaboration With
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PNY's Health Working Group