March of Dimes Report: "Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US," Back to the Future, Part 20
I've been writing these "Back to the Future" reports since January 2017--for more than seven years years now, women have faced increasingly dire conditions in the U. S. So bad that I added a second series, "When Women Became No Longer Equal." (To view all the posts in these two series, click on the labels, below.) Let's hope that conditions improve after the coming presidential election.
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| You can download the entire report by clicking here. |
All that being said, the recent March of Dimes report on maternity care offers up more bad news for reproductive health. According to "Nowhere to Go," the reality of "maternity care" is that for many women in the U.S.--more than 2.3 million women, to be accurate--there is no "maternity care" at all. These women live in so-called maternity care deserts, where there is "not a single birthing facility or obstetric clinician." Some 1,104 counties--35% of U.S. counties--are maternity care desserts (p. 3). In addition, over 3 million women live in counties with "limited" access to obstetrical care, hospitals, or birth centers.
From the report's "Key Findings" (p. 5):
- Living in a maternity care desert is associated with a 13% increased risk of preterm birth;
- Over half of counties in the US do not have a hospital that provides obstetric care;
- Nearly 70% of birth centers are located within just 10 states.
And, dangerously, "Fertility rates in rural counties and maternity care deserts
are higher than urban and full access counties and are
decreasing at a slower pace."
It should be no surprise that women living in maternity care deserts also receive "inadequate" pre-natal care (page 11).
Much more information and analysis is included in the report, which you can download by clicking here.
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| From "Nowhere to Go," click here |
