In some cases, keeping maternity units open is a financial challenge, since the departments aren’t always profitable, several Alabama physicians said.
Several of Cahaba’s physicians deliver babies at Princeton Baptist and Shelby Baptist.
“There’s something broken about the funding stream that helps us take care of our women and children,” Waits said.
Nationally, fewer than half of rural hospitals have labor and delivery services, according to the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a policy-focused nonprofit.
And so far this year, obstetrics departments have also closed in California, Idaho, Massachusetts and Tennessee.
Preterm birth is associated with low birth weight, which was the second leading cause of infant death in 2021, according to the CDC.
Dr. Heather Skanes, an OB-GYN at Princeton, said that some of her patients have traveled there from as far as Selma. »
