Julia Interrante News Today

Regional health systems continue to provide maternity care for Albert Lea residents, but concern persists over the lack of certain hospital services, and its impact on families and the local economy.

Whitfield Regional Hospital in Demopolis, Alabama closed its birthing unit in 2014. Then maternal mortality increased in its service area.

For expectant mothers living in rural parts of Minnesota, access to maternity units is disappearing, forcing them to sometimes drive hundreds of miles to give birth.

OhioHealth's Shelby Hospital stopped providing maternity services after February, and UH Lake West Medical Center in Willoughby will stop on April 15.

OhioHealth’s Shelby Hospital stopped providing maternity services after February. Lake West Medical Center in Willoughby is ending labor and delivery services April 15

An Ohio hospital recently ended their maternity services and another hospital is ending their labor and delivery services later this month.

Texas leads the U.S. in maternity ward closures, and nowhere is this more of an issue than in the western part of the state.

Risk for maternal illness (morbidity) and death is unevenly distributed in the U.S., with some populations bearing substantially greater risk, including Medicaid-insured individuals, rural residents and Black and Indigenous patients. Researchers at t

The Daily Yonder Report: As Obstetrics Units in Rural Hospitals Close, Black Rural Moms and Infants Face Higher Mortality Rates The research found that that more units are being closed in counties with majority non-white populations. The closures tend to affect small hospitals, often designated as Critical Access Hospitals, more often. Share this: A new study from the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center has found that when rural hospitals close their obstetrics units,...