OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (KOKH) — A new report released this week shows maternity care deserts to be a challenge, including in Oklahoma.
Dr. Blake Porter, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist, says a maternity care desert is defined as places that don’t have access to a delivering hospital facility or don’t have access to an OB/GYN.
The new report from March of Dimes, a national nonprofit aimed at improving the health of mothers and babies, shows nearly 40% of counties in the Midwest are designated maternity care deserts, including dozens in the Sooner State.
“Kind of the trend over the years and decades has been that as care moves towards more urban metro areas, we are seeing a slight increase in maternal care deserts both across the country and in Oklahoma,” Porter told FOX 25.
Porter said the deserts are driven by two main factors.
“Number one, where physicians are choosing to practice and choosing to live is a portion of this,” he said. “But also a portion of this is labor and delivery facilities and labor and delivery closures that are happening.”
The maternity care deserts can pose barriers to patients trying to access care.
“The largest barrier is just it increases the drive time, and the other main factor is it may reduce the amount of care that they access overall because of that first barrier that we talked about of just transportation to access care,” Porter said. “And lastly, I would just comment that the possibility is introduced of more complications when we don’t access care as frequently or it takes longer to access care through the transit time to their actually delivering facility.”
Porter said telehealth can help fill in some gaps.
“Telehealth has a huge opportunity to impact and reduce maternal care deserts and the complications that go along with that. If we have stable telehealth relations, effectively we are putting an obstetrician in the county, in the community,” Porter said.
FOX 25 asked the State Department of Health how the agency is working to improve maternity care across all counties in Oklahoma.
We received a statement saying, “The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) works with hospitals, community providers, professional associations and local partners to expand access and strengthen services statewide.
Agency efforts include programs like our Pregnancy Resource Navigators (PRNs), Choosing Childbirth (CCB), and the State Maternal Health Innovation (SMHI) grant and Title V.
The State Maternal Health Innovation grant enables OSDH to provide prenatal care in nine counties, offering routine care, connections to local obstetric providers and education. Another project under the grant supports Newman Memorial Hospital in Shattuck, funding a Certified Nurse Midwife and expanding access through new clinics in Shattuck and Woodward, offering childbirth classes, lactation support, transportation assistance and purchasing items needed for labor and delivery rooms.
Our largest statewide initiative underway is through Oklahoma’s Rural Health Transformation Program (RHTP). Several RHTP initiatives focus on maternity care, and while not every program mentions maternal health directly, many support preventive care, care closer to home, and technology innovation, all of which contribute to healthier outcomes for Oklahomans, including moms and babies.
Improving maternity care takes everyone leaning in to identify solutions, and recognizing that change requires persistence and partnership, because true transformation doesn’t happen overnight. By working together, we can strive for healthier outcomes for families across Oklahoma.
Additional info/context:
Rural Health Transformation:
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM): Maternal Health, Blood Pressure Cuffs
Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) Telehealth Expansion
Expanding Care: Doulas
Maternal Health Value-Based Payments
Pregnancy Resource Navigators (PRN) Program:
PRNs, housed within our county health departments, connect pregnant women, new parents, and families with programs and services that support healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. Navigators help families access resources—from healthcare to home-visiting programs, parenting support, and other community resources.
We now have PRNs embedded in Labor and Delivery hospitals in five rural communities. We are also embedding in L&Ds in the metro and surrounding areas since many women, both urban and rural, do deliver in the metro area hospitals.
Choosing Childbirth (CCB) Program:
Provides critical services to expecting mothers throughout the state, through awarded not-for-profit organizations, when it comes to counseling, classes, referrals and material assistance.”
To read the full report from March of Dimes, click here.
