skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, November 25, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

'Huge relief.' CEOs exhale after Trump taps Scott Bessent to lead Treasury; Five Mississippi women serving 175 Years, with 47 parole denials; MI couple opens their heart and home, transforming teen's life; Two Oregon companies forge a sustainable path for beer and wine bottles.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President-elect Trump's new pick for Attorney General vows retribution at Justice Department, the Trump transition is refusing to allow FBI Cabinet nominee background checks, and Republicans begin the process to defund Planned Parenthood.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The health of rural Americans is getting renewed attention from the CDC, updated data could help protect folks from flash floods like those devastated in Appalachia, and Native American Tribes want to play a key role in the nation's energy future.

Maternity Care Becoming Harder for Ohioans to Access, Experts Say

play audio
Play

Wednesday, August 16, 2023   

By Leah Shepard / Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

In Ohio, 13 of 88 counties are maternity care deserts, affecting approximately 97,000 women, according to data provided by March of Dimes. 

A county is classified as a maternity care desert if there are no hospitals providing obstetric care, no birth centers, no OB-GYN’s and no certified nurse midwives, according to March of Dimes. Bianca Zarders, maternal and infant health manager for the Cleveland Market Branch of March of Dimes, said 4,118 babies were born last year to Ohio mothers who live in maternity care deserts.

“In Ohio and on a national scale, a lot of the research shows that a lot of these women may have to drive 30, 40, 50 minutes to get to their nearest birthing hospital,” Zarders said. “And that is so problematic too, because if they’re struggling to pay for gas, or they have multiple kids who are at day care or in school, finding just the time to actually go to a prenatal appointment or to give birth and having to drive 50 minutes to get somewhere is insane.”

The dearth of maternity care in the state is getting worse, said Natasha Takyi-Micah, public policy and external affairs associate at the nonprofit Center for Community Solutions in Cleveland.

“And a few weeks ago, University Hospitals in Ashland announced that they were closing their maternity department,” Takyi-Micah said. So pretty much, that county does not have any hospitals that offer labor and delivery services unfortunately.”

The closing of the maternity department at Ashland comes eight months after University Hospitals closed their maternity department in Portage County in order to consolidate labor and delivery services at UH Geauga Medical Center in Geauga County. 

In a press release, University Hospitals said that declining birth rates and staffing shortages are both reasons for the closing the maternity department in Portage County. They said in July that the Ashland branch is closing for the same reasons. 

“The reason why a lot of hospitals are closing their labor and delivery departments or maternity wards is because of what happened during the pandemic,” Takyi-Micah said. “It seems the pandemic exacerbated many problems that came to staff shortages in the hospitals, and also there was a decline in births.”

Dr. Maria Phillis, an OB-GYN and member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said maternity care deserts force some patients to travel unusually far for appointments, especially if they need specialized care.

“One of our notable things we have to fill gaps for is higher-level care,” she said. “So for example, at one of the institutions that I’ve worked at, we had a patient with significantly poorly controlled diabetes who was coming essentially more than an hour and a half for high-risk appointments and wasn’t able to routinely travel that distance.”

Phillis said that many of these patients travel from very rural areas where obstetric care is unavailable.

Zarders, who works in research, policy and legislation for the March of Dimes as well as community outreach, said the lack of maternity care coupled with chronic health conditions, like diabetes, hypertension and smoking, often lead to poor childbirth outcomes and preterm births.

She said other widespread issues affect whole communities. 

“Another overarching theme is community level issues,” Zarders said. “Like socioeconomic status or environmental factors. Those also fuel the disparity when it comes to receiving adequate prenatal care, especially in communities of color.”

Zarders said that at some hospitals, women are turned away entirely because of lack of care, and that this is something that happens on a national scale.

“I recently heard a story where a woman ended up in an emergency room because she was in labor,” Zanders said. “And the nearest hospital just had an emergency room. And she was actually denied care because they didn’t have an OB person present. And so they actually asked her to go to another hospital.”

Takyi-Micah said the Center for Community Solutions is working to influence policy at the state level to alleviate this problem. 

“We just wrapped up the state budget,” she said. “We have been advocating for doulas to be reimbursed through Medicaid so more people have access to them, since they are one of the solutions to reduce the infant and maternal mortality crisis. So, that language is now included in the budget.”


This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
In Massachusetts, teachers of color make up nearly 10% of the state's 80,000 K-12 teachers - up from 7% in 2012, according to MassINC. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Massachusetts lawmakers are hoping a new teacher certification process will draw more diverse candidates to the classroom. The state recently passed …


Environment

play sound

By Liz Carey for The Daily Yonder.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection for the Daily Yonder-Public News Service Collaborat…

Social Issues

play sound

The 2024 presidential election has raised complex emotions for incarcerated Ohioans, many of whom are unable to vote but remain deeply engaged in …


play sound

By Jon Marcus for The Hechinger Report.Broadcast version by Zamone Perez for Maryland News Connection reporting for The Hechinger Report-Public News S…

Pennsylvania will receive about more than $591 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to cap orphaned oil and gas wells and restore abandoned mine lands. (Funtay/Adobe)

Environment

play sound

A Pennsylvania group warned progress on environmental protections could be at risk under a second term for President-elect Donald Trump. The state's …

Environment

play sound

By Allison Frost for Oregon Public Broadcasting.Broadcast version by Isobel Charlé for Oregon News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism…

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado hospitals got failing grades for compliance with the Colorado Hospital Discounted Care law, according to a new report. The law passed in 20…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021