Nearly six million women in the US live in maternity care deserts

More than 5.6 million women in the US live where there is no or limited access to maternity care, says a report by the March of Dimes organisation on maternity care deserts.1

Maternity care deserts, the report said, “are counties where there is a lack of maternity resources, where there are no hospitals or birth centres offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers.” Some 1119 of the nation’s 3143 counties are maternity care deserts, a 2% increase since the 2020 report, says the non-profit organisation that works to improve the health of mothers and babies.

“A person’s ability to have a healthy pregnancy and a healthy birth should not be dictated by where they live and their ability to access consistent, quality care, but today these factors make it dangerous to be pregnant and give birth for millions of women in the US,” said Elizabeth …