March of Dimes: One-Third of Tennessee Counties Are Maternity Care Deserts
Image Credit: Amina Filkins / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Jason Vaughn] –
A recently released report shows that many mothers and pregnant women have no access to maternal care in the Tennessee county they live in, making those areas “maternity care deserts”.
According to the 2022 report by March of Dimes’, nearly a third of Tennessee – or about 34 counties – fall into this category.
March of Dimes Tennessee manager Kabera Leach explains exactly what a maternity care desert is.
“A maternity care desert is where there is no access to an OB provider, a birthing center – there is just nothing there,” Leach said.
One of those maternal care deserts in Tennessee is Lauderdale County where many expecting mothers are forced to drive over an hour each way in order to receive obstetrician care before and after pregnancy.
“It was stressful,” new mother Mallory Worlds told WKRN. “If you just had something small and you wanted to check on it, it wasn’t really available to do that unless you wanted to go that far.”
Worlds said as she approached closer to her due date, the appointments became weekly and she was having to take full days off of her job for check-ups.
“It wouldn’t just be me. My husband always wanted to go to appointments with me. I didn’t want to go alone and sometimes he couldn’t be off work like that and I would have to get someone else to go with me if I didn’t want to drive back and forth by myself,” she said.
The inconvenience continued through delivery and even afterwards with appointments in Memphis for both her and her baby.
“That’s also hard as a postpartum mom when you are trying to recover. I had to have a C-section, I was very sore, having to get into the car and drive for an hour and on top of it, they are eating every two-three hours. It was very difficult,” she said.
Groups like March of Dimes and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center’s College of Nursing are working to provide more adequate resources to these “desert” communities.
UTHSC College of Nursing has recently received grants totaling $3.9 million to allow the college to help provide health care to Lake and Lauderdale counties by a mobile health unit. The college is also hoping to add rural health education to its undergraduate curriculum in an effort to bring more awareness and to provide great resources for rural parts of the state
Worlds says she is lucky to have access to a vehicle and a partner to support her and help her make all of her appointments, but she knows not everyone in her county is in the same situation.
“Most people don’t know we don’t have the resources we need around here. Some of us are able to make the drive, [but] just because we are able to doesn’t mean we should have to just to get good care,” she said.
About the Author: Jason Vaughn, Media Coordinator for The Tennessee Conservative ~ Jason previously worked for a legacy publishing company based in Crossville, TN in a variety of roles through his career. Most recently, he served as Deputy Director for their flagship publication. Prior, he was a freelance journalist writing articles that appeared in the Herald Citizen, the Crossville Chronicle and The Oracle among others. He graduated from Tennessee Technological University with a Bachelor’s in English-Journalism, with minors in Broadcast Journalism and History. Contact Jason at news@TennesseeConservativeNews.com
