"If you're pregnant near Sandpoint, Idaho, the nearest labor and delivery unit is 50 minutes away. In Laurium, Michigan, it's about two hours. From Glennallen, Alaska, expect to drive at least three hours. Having a baby at a hospital isn't a given in much of rural America. Access to hospital-based obstetric care has declined in recent years, with many hospitals closing their maternity wards to save money or shutting down altogether. Hospitals are increasingly under stress with dwindling federal funding,aging facilities, and high healthcare costs."
""In places that have lost their obstetric units, there's higher rates of pre-term births and more out-of-hospital births," said Julia Interrante, researcher and statistical lead at the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center. "Sometimes those are planned home births, but a lot of those are births that are happening on the side of the road as people are trying to get to the hospital where they had planned to deliver.""
Researchers at the University of Minnesota monitored hospital-based obstetric access since 2010 and found 60% of rural counties offered no labor and delivery services in 2023, compared with 38% of urban counties. Over 500 hospitals stopped offering labor and delivery in the past decade. Many rural patients must drive long distances—about 50 minutes from Sandpoint, Idaho; two hours from Laurium, Michigan; and three hours from Glennallen, Alaska—to reach a hospital. Hospitals have closed maternity wards or shut down amid dwindling federal funding, aging facilities, and rising healthcare costs. Loss of local obstetric units is linked to higher rates of preterm and out-of-hospital births.
Read at Business Insider
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