BUFFALO, N.Y. — "I didn't start off with a Doula. I started off the same way that I did with my first pregnancy. It wasn't until I started asking questions," mother Natavia Siders said.
It's 2011. Natavia Siders tells 2 On Your Side she was at Sisters of Charity Hospital having her baby boy, Namarion.
"I was just uneasy. I was considered high-risk. I was considered high risk because I had two miscarriages before," she said.
On top of her uneasiness, she says she felt like her doctors weren't listening to her.
"When you're going through it, a lot of times you do feel alone because it's you and what you're doing. Nobody else can control it," Siders said.
Ten years later, she had another child. Her daughter Nayomi, at Mercy Hospital. She says this was a much better experience.
"They were reassuring me like you got this. Everything's OK. Remember your breathing routines," she said.
It's all thanks to one woman, Sharon Johns, Natavia's doula.
"We don't have enough doulas. A full-time active doula will serve about 40 families a year. Erie County has about 10,000 babies a year," Johns said.
Because of experiences like Natavia's, the City of Buffalo is spending $274,708 on a maternal study at Sisters Hospital and area Doula services.
There's also another need.
"Erie County is one of those deserts for OB/GYNs- minority OB/GYNs,'' Dr. Emmekunla Nylander said.
Nylander says she's one of seven here. 2 On Your Side asked, do a lot of people use doulas?
"Unfortunately, not to the level they should be," Nylander said.
"Do you try to push the idea?"
Nylander replied: "Absolutely. Absolutely."
The numbers Nylander shares are alarming. She said Black women are five times more likely to die during pregnancy in New York State. Nearly 75% of deaths could've been prevented. There were over 1,200 maternal deaths nationwide last year, calling it a maternal health crisis.
"A college-educated Black woman, like myself, has a higher risk of severe maternal morbidity or mortality than a white woman without a high school diploma," Nylander said.