A new report provides more evidence that where a pregnant mother lives in Georgia determines the care she receives. The March of Dimes’ latest report on maternal care access, released Tuesday, shows about 42% of Georgia’s counties are considered maternity care deserts compared to about 35% in the United States.
In the March of Dimes 2024 report “Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the US” the nonprofit, that promotes healthy moms and babies, defines maternity care deserts as counties that lack maternity care resources. These counties may lack hospitals or birth centers offering obstetric care and have no obstetric providers. Obstetrics focuses on pregnancy, childbirth and the period after birth. Obstetricians provide prenatal care, diagnose and treat complications during pregnancy and deliver babies.
Nearly 66% of counties in Georgia do not have an obstetric hospital or birth center. Almost 43% of counties do not have an obstetric provider and 14.5% of counties have only one such provider.
In Georgia, over 152,000 reproductive-aged women live in maternity care deserts and more than 9,500 babies were born in those deserts.
Nationwide, about 70% of all birth centers are located in 10 states. Georgia is not one of them because the vast majority of counties, about 98%, don’t have a freestanding birth center, according to the report. There are three birthing centers in Georgia, located in Atlanta, Savannah and Northeast Georgia, said Tamara Mason, director of maternal and child health collective impact for March of Dimes Georgia.
“Maternity care overall in the country and in Georgia is worsening,” she said. “It’s unfortunate, but we can bank on being worse than the dire national statistics.”
The report attributes the national decline in maternity care access to hospitals closing their obstetric units, which forces families to travel further for health care services. Obstetric services aren’t as profitable as other health services hospitals provide. Maternity care access was worse in rural areas of Georgia, particularly the southern part of the state, and among women of color, the report shows.
Credit: March of Dimes
Credit: March of Dimes
Among birthing moms in Georgia, 9.4% have to travel more than 30 miles to the nearest obstetric hospital compared to the national average of 9%. Women in Georgia’s maternity care deserts travel twice as far to reach their nearest obstetric hospital, an average of 32 minutes, compared to the 15 minutes traveled by those living in counties with full access to such care.
There are also more uninsured women ages 19 to 54 in maternity care deserts, 23%, than in areas that have greater access to care.
Another concern for Georgia is its high rate of chronic conditions. About 37% of birthing mothers had one of these chronic condition prior to pregnancy: diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity or cigarette smoking. Black birthing mothers had the highest rates of chronic conditions, about 44%, the report showed.
Recognizing the need to improve maternal care in Georgia, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month awarded $3.1 million to Georgia’s Department of Public Health to better identify and prevent pregnancy-related death. The funding was part of a $118.5 million national CDC effort to reduce maternal mortality around the country. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services also announced it would spend more than $558 million last month to improve maternal health, including in Georgia.
Georgia’s rate of preterm births, infant and maternal mortality are higher than the national average, according to the March of Dimes, which recently gave the state an “F” on its 2023 scorecard.
Georgia had a “fairly high” maternal mortality rate of 32.1 per 100,000 live births between 2018 and 2022, according to the CDC’s latest research. The state also has the ninth-highest infant mortality rate in the country, with about seven babies dying for every 1,000 live births.
Maternal mortality is the measure of mothers’ deaths during or within a year of the end of a pregnancy. Infant mortality is the measure of how many babies die before they reach their first birthday.
The March of Dimes report states “despite ongoing efforts, access to quality maternity care centers continues to decline, particularly in rural and underserved communities, marking a continued deterioration in maternal and infant care across the US.”
Mason said she was pleased to see the report came with suggested solutions, which can be applied to Georgia. “What can we do to move the needle, reduce disparities and make the birthing experience better for all families?”
Among its proposals for improving care, the nonprofit supports more telehealth services, health care provided through technology, to help maternal health providers keep up with patients during the pregnancy process and beyond.
Mason said the nonprofit is speaking with local care managers, such as insurance companies, in the hopes of starting mom and baby mobile health centers, as exist in other states, in rural Georgia communities. The March of Dimes also advocates for increasing the role of certified nurse midwives to help treat patients without access to local health care because of closing hospitals or a lack of maternity care doctors.
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