Over One-Third Of US Counties Are ‘Maternity Care Deserts,’ New Report Finds

More than one-third of U.S. counties have significant maternity care access gaps, according to a March of Dimes report released Tuesday.

The report found that 34.6% of U.S. counties are currently “maternity care deserts,” home to 2.4 million women of reproductive age and where 149,000 infants are born each year. Women who live in such “deserts”— many of which are in rural areas of the country — travel roughly three times farther to obtain labor and delivery services on average than those living in counties with broader maternity care access.

An additional 3.4 million women and 209,000 infants presently live in U.S. counties that have “low or moderate” maternity care access, according to the report. Meanwhile, over half of U.S. counties do not have a hospital with labor and delivery services, which impacts nearly 370,000 births per year.

“Across the country, families continue to face unnecessary barriers to maternity care with shifting healthcare and policy decisions threatening to widen gaps and weaken essential services,” March of Dimes President and CEO Cindy Rahman said in a statement. “Now is the time to reimagine what maternity care can and should be by building a system that creates healthier beginnings, stronger communities, and better outcomes for generations to come.”

The report also found that obstetric clinician shortages are worse in rural regions of the U.S., where almost 58% of counties do not have obstetric clinicians, compared with about 19% of urban counties. Moreover, an estimated 96 publicly reported labor and delivery unit closures occurred across 35 U.S. states between January 2024 to May 2026, March of Dimes reported. (Read more from “Over One-Third Of US Counties Are ‘Maternity Care Deserts,’ New Report Finds” HERE)