From the Rural Health Research Gateway:
Access to maternity care in rural United States (U.S.) counties has been on the decline in recent years. The purpose of this infographic is to show the loss of hospital-based obstetric services in rural counties from 2010 to 2022, and how this differs by rural county type (micropolitan vs. noncore).
Key Findings:
In the U.S., access to maternity care in rural counties continues to decline. Overall, 49.0% of rural counties (969/1976) had hospital-based obstetrics in 2010, and 41.2% of rural counties (814/1976) had hospital-based obstetrics in 2022. By 2022, 58.8% (1162/1976) of rural counties had no hospital-based obstetric services.
Among rural counties, we distinguished micropolitan and noncore rural counties. In 2010, 80.7% of micropolitan counties (517/641) had hospital-based obstetric care, declining to 73.9% (474/641) in 2022. Among noncore counties, the percentage with hospital-based obstetric services declined from 33.9% (452/1335) in 2010 to 25.5% (340/1335) in 2022.
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