Alabama Birth Facts

Rural health is a particularly important public health issue in Alabama. By 2014, just 29 of Alabama's 67 counties have a hospital that offers obstetrical services. Rural hospitals are closing their labor and delivery departments as a way to save money. What results is mothers having to drive 50+ miles in labor and sometimes forgo regular prenatal visits because the time off work, fuel, and childcare costs simply aren't economically feasible. Rurally disadvantaged mothers may choose to schedule medically unnecessary inductions or surgical deliveries in order to avoid unassisted spontaneous vaginal delivery en-route to the hospital.
They may offer their consent, but a choice without reasonable options isn't really a choice.

See, how one rural Alabama hospital managed to reopen its labor and deliver services (Anna Claire Vollers of AL.com).

The most recent hospitals to drop OB services were Bryan Whitfield in Demopolis and Jacksonville Hospital in Jacksonville.

We need to fill the gap in care.

Family physicians could play an important role by providing prenatal care to rural mothers, when it wouldn't be economically feasibly for OB-GYNs.

Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) could provide convenient, culturally appropriate, and affordable prenatal counseling and testing, and referrals to medical services when required. Birth centers could cut costs for families as well as taxpayers.

The Alabama Birth Coalition advocates for access to normal, physiologic birth in the hospital setting and universal access to midwifery and obstetrical services. If this issue is important to you, please submit your information on the Contact Form on the Home page and follow us on social media.