From money to mortality rate, a lot can go into determining which states are best for pregnant women. Putting all 50 to the test, Forbes Advisor ranked the best and worst for having a baby. A key takeaway from the research? The South — including Georgia — has a problem.
Seven of the 10 lowest ranking states were in the South: Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and South Carolina. Arkansas came in at the bottom, in no small part because the state has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country at 43.5 deaths per 100,000 live births. At 7.88 deaths per 1,000 live births, it also has the second highest infant mortality rate.
Georgia ranked as 10th worst. Mothers without health insurance can expect to pay around $27,839.15 to have their baby and $2,330.00 with insurance. The Peach State has an infant mortality rate of 6.53 deaths per 1,000 live births and a maternal mortality rate of 33.9 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Vermont. came out on top, thanks in part to having the lowest maternal and infant mortality rates. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maryland, in that order, finished out the top five.
To determine the rankings, Forbes Advisor measured each state based on five metrics. Infant mortality rate, which reflected the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births, was weighted 25% and used a three-year average calculated from 2020-2022 data. The maternal mortality rate also accounted for a quarter of each state’s total score, using 2018-2021 data to determine the number of deaths among both pregnant women and women within 42 days of pregnancy termination per 100,000 live births.
A fifth of the final score was dictated by how each state would be able to meet parents’ needs for obstetricians and gynecologists over the next six years, based on 2021 data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The average cost of childbirth for women with health insurance metric, based on 2020 data from the Health Care Cost Institute, was weighted 15%.
The median cost of childbirth without health insurance, based on 2022 data from Fair Health, made up the final 15%.
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