Rural Mainers deserve equal access to quality maternity care | Letter

Since 2014, eleven hospitals in Maine have closed their labor and delivery units, leaving many families with up to a two-hour drive for prenatal care or delivery. This hurts many rural communities and those people deserve access to safe, high-quality maternity care just as much as someone who lives in an urban area.

These closures are more than an inconvenience. Longer travel distances to maternity hospitals are linked to worse outcomes for mothers and babies, including issues like higher rates of complications and preterm births. Rural communities already struggle with other provider shortages like pediatricians and primary care doctors, which makes the problem of maternity care even harder to solve.

The state of Maine needs to act before more families lose access to their local maternity care. Maine legislators should increase MaineCare payments for rural labor and delivery units, expand telehealth coverage for prenatal and postpartum care and provide funding for advanced medical training (a fellowship) to help doctors train and stay in rural hospitals. These are just a couple of steps that can help keep services open while trying to build a stronger workforce for the future.

Maine will continue to lose local labor and delivery services and we cannot wait until another hospital closes to start caring. Every pregnant person deserves access to timely and safe care, no matter where they live.

Ella Hair
Master of Public Health Student
Portland

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Tagged: letter to the editor