Maternity Care Deserts: Remedial Congressional Efforts
As defined by the March of Dimes, maternity care deserts constitute “counties that lack maternity resources.”1 The 2022 March of Dimes report goes on to note that “areas of combined low or no access affect up to 6.9 million women and almost 500,000 births across the U.S.”1 Mention is also made of the reality that maternity care deserts affect “approximately 2.2 million women of childbearing age and almost 150,000 babies.”1 Whereas 13% of all babies are “being born in rural areas, only 6% of maternity care providers practice in these communities.”2 It follows that “women living in maternity care deserts travel 3.7 times farther on average than those living in areas with full access to care.”2 In this Commentary, we review recent Congressional initiatives intent on addressing this all-important national challenge with an eye toward curtailing its very occurrence and the tragic implications thereof.
