‘Expensive and complicated’: Most rural hospitals no longer deliver babies • Nevada Current

‘Expensive and complicated’: Most rural hospitals no longer deliver babies • Nevada Current

A mother prepares her infant son for bed. Since 2020, 36 states have lost at least one rural labor and delivery department. In rural counties, the loss of hospital-based obstetric care is associated with increases in births in hospital emergency rooms, less prenatal care and higher rates of babies being born too early. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)Nine months after Monroe County Hospital in rural South Alabama closed its labor and delivery …