Overview
- The March of Dimes report released Aug. 11 found 34.6% of U.S. counties have no obstetric clinicians or birthing facilities, a designation the group calls a maternity care desert.
- More than half of counties lack a hospital with labor and delivery services, a gap that affects nearly 370,000 births a year and forces many women to travel about three times farther for delivery care.
- From January 2024 through May 2026 the report identified at least 96 publicly reported labor-and-delivery unit closures across 35 states, and in nearly 60% of those counties the closed unit was the only local birthing option.
- The report links severe clinician shortages in rural areas—about 58% of rural counties lack obstetric clinicians—to delayed prenatal care, more unplanned out-of-hospital births, higher maternal morbidity, and increased NICU admissions.
- March of Dimes and partner groups are expanding responses such as mobile 'Mom & Baby' health centers, doula programs, regional delivery models, and guaranteed-income pilots while warning that recent policy changes and lower Medicaid reimbursement could deepen access losses unless national action is taken.