Rural_Maternity_Care_Crisis.pdf (chqpr.org)

Most Rural Hospitals in the U.S. No Longer Deliver Babies
More than half (57%) of the rural hospitals in the U.S. do not offer labor and delivery services, and in 10 states, more than two-thirds do not. Over the past five years, more than 100 rural hospitals across the country have stopped delivering babies.

Immediate Action is Needed to Address the Crisis in Rural Maternity Care
The U.S. has one of the highest rates of mortality for both infants and mothers among the world’s advanced economies. Pregnant women are more likely to die in the U.S. than in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, and most other developed countries. Moreover, Black women in the U.S. are 2-
3 times as likely to die for pregnancy-related causes as other racial and ethnic subgroups.
Over 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable with appropriate prenatal, labor & delivery, and post-partum care. Although improvements in maternity care are needed in all parts of the country to reduce mortality rates, one of the greatest challenges is in rural areas, because most rural hospitals are
no longer providing maternity care at all. The problem will get even worse if more rural communities lose maternity care services. Reversing this trend will require helping rural hospitals
to recruit and retain a sufficient number of physicians, midwives, and nurses and ensuring that payments from insurance plans are adequate to cover the costs of delivering high-quality
maternity care.
Rural maternity care is in a state of crisis, and a crisis demands immediate action. Women and babies in rural communities will die unnecessarily until the changes in workforce recruitment and payments described above are implemented.