In Alabama, three hospitals are about to cease delivering babies, leaving pregnant patients with no birthing hospitals in Shelby and Monroe counties, and a drive of up to 100 miles for some to get to a labor and delivery unit. That's not even that unusual in the Yellowhammer State, where the March of Dimes says "more than a third of the counties are maternity care deserts ... meaning they have no hospital with obstetrics care, birth centers, OB-GYNs, or certified nurse midwives," reports NBC News. That's not great news for expectant moms in a state that has the fourth highest maternity mortality rate, per recent CDC stats (a more recent study by the nonprofit Milken Institute cited by USA Today puts Alabama at the top of the list).
The CDC notes that Alabama also has the third highest infant mortality rate, as of 2021. The closures are for various reasons, including financial issues and staffing shortages wrought by Alabama's strict abortion laws, which has made some doctors fearful of repercussions for providing abortions. Medical professionals warn about the stakes involved in losing maternity units, including patients not bothering to make the drive for needed checkups, more preterm births, moms-to-be not getting to the hospital in time for labor (meaning babies born en route), higher costs, and dangerous birthing situations.
"People are going to show up delivering in the ER, and you're going to have bad outcomes," one OB-GYN who used to work at Princeton Baptist Medical Center, the Birmingham hospital about to shutter, tells NBC. "If you show up with a very premature baby and deliver in the ER, and you don't have a NICU and you don't have an obstetrics team, things aren't going to go well." Alabama isn't the only state facing the challenge of disappearing maternity care. ABC News reports that fewer than half of rural hospitals nationwide have maternity units, and a March of Dimes report cited by Yahoo notes that 36% of all US counties are considered maternity care deserts.
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Obstetrics units have also recently closed in California, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Idaho, where 13 of the state's 44 counties now bear the label of maternity care desert, per NBC. The decline in maternity care options has been taking place for more than a decade, per CNN, which cites a Chartis report noting 217 US hospitals have closed their maternity units since 2011. So what do pregnant women in these areas do? Yahoo has some suggestions, including finding a doula or pregnancy coach to help throughout the pregnancy, and scheduling delivery inductions, if possible. More here. (More maternity stories.)
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