Having a Baby? You May Need to Travel Farther Than Before

TUESDAY, April 7, 2026 (HealthDay News) — More pregnant women have to drive long distances to get the maternity care they need, a new study says.

U.S. counties that lost all hospital-based obstetric services have been hardest hit, researchers recently reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

In those counties, the number of women of childbearing age who live within a half-hour drive of obstetric care fell from more than 90% in 2010 to about 60% in 2021, researchers siad.

“Access to maternity care is critical for the health of both the birthing person and babies,” said lead investigator Brittany Ranchoff, a research fellow at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in Boston.

“Our study shows that many birthing people would have to travel much farther for delivery, especially in counties that lost all hospital-based obstetric services,” Ranchoff said in a news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed travel times to hospitals that offer obstetric care in more than 3,000 counties.

Travel times stayed mostly stable in counties that kept obstetric services open, but access dropped sharply in places where the services closed.

The decline was strongest in rural counties.

“In some rural areas, access dropped by more than 50%,” Ranchoff said. “These communities already face many health care challenges and longer travel times can add stress and increase risk during pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum.”

Longer travel distances make it tougher for women to get prenatal care and respond to emergencies or high-risk deliveries, researchers noted.

More information

The National Rural Health Association has more on rural access to obstetric services.

SOURCE: Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, news release, April 1, 2026