Obstetric care continues to vanish from rural areas

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Obstetric care continues to vanish from rural areas

When rural hospitals go into the red, they often have little choice but to stop delivering babies.  The result can be terrifying. Harrowing roadside births have been documented in news stories and online. Maternal unit closures that put women and their babies in rural areas at heightened risk of complications and death aren’t a new trend. ProPublica covered the dilemma in a 2017 interview with Katy B. Kozhimannil, Ph.D., who co-directs the Unive…