USA Today series shows gaps in health care for rural moms

USA Today's Nada Hassanein has just published a four-part series on disparities in health care among rural mothers. Part one has an overview of the issue; part two focuses on inequalities among rural indigenous people; part three has data on maternal mortality among rural women of color, and part four explores the historical roots of the phenomenon.

"About 2 million rural women of childbearing age live in maternity care deserts at least 25 miles away from a labor and delivery unit," Hassanein reports. "Rural hospitals and obstetric wards, already scarce, have continued to shut down in record numbers. Women of color are even more vulnerable . . . and the federal government has only recently started to identify the problem. The maternal death rate for rural Black women is three times higher than for rural white women, a 2021 Government Accountability Office report found, and the rate of severe maternal illness for those Black mothers was twice that of white women.

"The Covid-19 pandemic made matters worse. The nation’s overall maternal death rate increased, and disparities widened. While the death rate for white mothers rose in 2020 from about 18 to 19 deaths per 100,000, Black mothers' death rates remained three times as high, soaring from 44 to 55 deaths. Hispanic mothers' death rates also surged, from 12 to 18 per 100,000, according to the CDC. At the same time, half of rural hospitals already had no obstetric care, and two dozen hospitals shut down entirely."