Dwindling Maternal Care in Rural Areas Has Feds Seeking Fixes

Kearny County Hospital is in Lakin, Kan., a town with a population of 2,200, but it delivers nearly a baby per day and its maternal health outcomes are better than those in urban communities.

The hospital is now delivering healthier babies and has lower cesarean section rates by flying out a fetal medicine specialist once a month who works to help address the community’s high rate of gestational diabetes, having family physicians provide a variety of services, and providing unique benefits to the doctors they’re recruiting, Benjamin Anderson, the CEO, said.

Rural communities have been increasingly losing access to maternal ...