The United States is in the midst of a maternal health care crisis, one made even worse by states who refuse to listen to those who have been in the birth trenches for centuries: midwives. This is currently playing out in real time in Alabama, where the state’s Department of Public Health missed the opportunity to alleviate the maternal health care emergency residents are facing.
According to a recent March of Dimes study, 37.3% of counties in Alabama are considered a “maternal care desert” and 31.3% have low or moderate access to maternal care. This means that almost 70% of the population is living in areas without a hospital or birth center, making access to appropriate preventive, prenatal and postpartum care difficult. On top of this scarcity of care, Alabama has the third highest rate of maternal mortality and the fifth highest rate of infant mortality in the country. State officials should be doing everything in their power to fix this. Instead, recent news reports indicate that three hospitals in the state will soon close their maternity units, including one in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
