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Description
Rural maternity care is in decline across the U.S., with most rural women living over 30 minutes from their nearest hospital-based obstetric unit. In Maine, eight hospitals closed their obstetric units over the last 15 years, including five closures since 2020. Individuals in many rural Maine communities now face hours-long drives to access maternity care. These distances are associated with a range of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Hospital-based obstetric unit closures are driven by factors such as low birth rates and staffing challenges that are related to broader demographic and economic patterns, including an aging population and shifting livelihoods. When such larger trends or disasters like the COVID pandemic put pressure on rural hospitals, unprofitable obstetric services become an enticing cut. Previous research on this issue has not addressed the relationship between a community’s maternal health resources and its adaptive capacity. Bridging the literature on rural maternity care and climate resilience, I suggest the two are tied and mutually reinforcing. Environmental shocks and stressors that destabilize rural economies and populations can also exacerbate the factors that influence rural maternity unit closures. Health resource losses signal that a community is struggling and may encourage younger people with more job skills and capital to look elsewhere when starting families, risking a cycle of stress, resource loss, and rural decline. From this standpoint, rural maternity unit closures are not only a canary for community vulnerability, but also a potential point of intervention to stem resource loss and invest in community health and sustainability.
Publication Date
10-28-2024
Recommended Citation
DeJoy, Gianna, "Maine’s vanishing maternity care and community resilience: Interrupting the resource-capacity erosion cycle" (2024). Rural Issues Symposium. 59.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/rural_issues/59