Maternity Care on the Comeback as New California Laws Take Hold

She drove a hundred miles to give birth. New California laws are bringing maternity care closer to home

Three years after closing its maternity ward, a new state law will help a rural Northern California hospital bring birth services back to the community.

She drove 100 miles to give birth. New California laws are bringing maternity care closer to home

At 3:30 on a July morning, Emily Meyers’ water broke. Her son was coming five weeks early. Meyers and her husband jumped in the car and raced from their home in Greenville, population 387, to Reno, Nevada, where they had planned to deliver. It was a two-hour drive along mostly narrow, two-lane highways shared with logging trucks. They didn’t make it in time. Their son, Grant, was born in the car 13 minutes from the hospital to two stunned parent…