March of Dimes: More than one-third of US counties are maternity deserts

Over 2.3 million women live in a U.S. county that has no maternity care, and 5.5 million live with very limited access to care, according to a new report from March of Dimes.

The report also shows more than 100 hospitals closed their obstetric units since 2022, leading to delays in getting emergency care or having to drive farther just to see a maternity care provider.

Dr. Amanda Williams, March of Dimes chief medical officer, told Scripps News what many women face: "No hospital with obstetrics services — so a labor and delivery unit and no licensed birth center and no provider that can give prenatal or postpartum care. That means an OB-GYN, a family practice doc who does obstetrics, or a certified midwife or a certified nurse midwife. So in summary, no place to have your baby and no place, nobody to take care of you.”

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About 35% of counties are maternity deserts, the report says.

Alaska, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota have some of the most extensive maternity deserts, adding geography can lead to bad health outcomes especially for moms and babies already at higher risk.

“Black women are three times more likely than their White peers to die during childbirth. We know that poor and disabled women who are insured through Medicaid are twice as likely to die during childbirth,” said Williams.

Vania Biglefthand's story highlights what that looks like for moms. For her second and third child's births, she had to drive two hours away from her home in rural Montana to the city of Billings for care.

With her third child, it meant driving with contractions and staying away from her family on bedrest for a month before her C-section.

“I would look out the window and I’d watch them drive away from my hospital room, and it was always sad. I think I cried every time," she said.

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