Access to pregnancy and birth care for American women is dwindling across the country, particularly in rural areas, according to a
released Tuesday by March of Dimes, which say more than 36% of American counties are considered to be maternity care"deserts” and 6.9 million women in the United States live with limited or no access to maternity care services.Key Facts Care “deserts”—defined as counties without any obstetric providers or a hospital or birth center that offers obstetric care—have become more common over the last several years, the health advocacy group says, withThere was a 4% decline in the number of hospitals with maternity services between 2018 and 2019, the
, with Alabama, Wyoming, Idaho, Indiana and West Virginia losing the most labor and delivery units by state.to maternity care and several states stood out from the rest when it came to inadequate access: Almost three quarters of counties in North Dakota are considered maternity care deserts, followed by 56% in South Dakota, 53% in Oklahoma and 52% in Nebraska.
Two in three maternity care deserts are in rural counties, where only 7% of the nation's obstetric providers practice but 19% of Americans live, census