East Idaho News
•80% Informative
A growing number of rural hospitals have been shuttering their labor and delivery units.
The closures have worsened so-called “maternity care deserts” — counties with no hospitals or birth centers that offer obstetric care and no OB providers.
The American Hospital Association says at least 89 obstetric units closed in rural hospitals between 2015 and 2019 .
Prenatal care suffers when people must travel long distances or take lots of time off work for appointments.
Not all insurance covers deliveries out of state, and some alternative in-state hospitals are an hour or more away.
Some states and communities are taking steps to create more freestanding birth centers.
Shane Alderson wants to help people who are facing the same tough decisions his family had to make. He said rural communities shouldn’t be stripped of health care options because of their smaller size or because of the number of low-income people with public insurance. “That’s not equitable,” he said. “People can’t survive like that.”.
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