Overview
Steps such as Medicaid expansion, extended postpartum coverage and loosening restrictions on CNMs are considered promising efforts. Since its opening in September 2020, 850 children have been born at UNC Health Chatham’s Maternity Care Center. The center’s staff is made up mostly of family physicians rather than OB-GYNs. The care model aims to address the lack of maternal and infant care in rural areas, where obstetric units have shut down.
Rural care disruption
A dozen rural hospitals across the state have stopped providing any inpatient care or closed entirely since 2005, according to the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research. North Carolina has struggled with access to care, especially in those rural areas. Of the state’s 100 counties, 20 are considered maternity care deserts because there are no hospitals offering obstetric services or birth centers, and no practicing obstetricians, gynecologists or certified nurse midwives.
quotes
“We need more hospitals to actually open up their maternity units again, because distance to care matters,” said Dana Iglesias, a family physician and interim medical director of UNC Health Chatham’s Maternity Care Center.
Impact of access on infant outcomes
A recent study by March of Dimes researchers, published in Jama Network Open, emphasizes the risk associated with limited maternity care access. The study found that babies born in counties with little or no access to maternity care face a much higher risk of death in their first year.
Author’s summary
The report highlights ongoing access gaps in rural North Carolina and links limited maternity care to higher infant mortality risk, underscoring the need for reopened maternity services and expanded coverage to protect mothers and babies.