Over One-Third of Counties are “Maternity Care Deserts”

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 i