America Has Mapped Its Maternity Care Deserts. Why Aren’t They Shrinking?

Boston, MA -- November 2026: For years, the maternal health community has documented the consequences of losing access to maternity care. Hospitals close obstetric units. Clinician shortages deepen. Pregnant women travel further for routine appointments and delivery.

Yet despite sustained attention, the geography of the problem has proved remarkably stubborn.

According to the March of Dimes 2026 Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S. report, one in three U.S. counties remains a maternity care desert, with the overall number of maternity care deserts remaining virtually unchanged since 2016.

That raises an uncomfortable question for healthcare leaders: if we know where the gaps are, what is stopping us from closing them?

It is a question Lisa Bukovac, Chief Clinical Officer at Ob Hospitalist Group, and Michael Warren, Chief Medical and Health Officer at March of Dimes, will tackle at Women's HealthX in Boston this December in a dedicated discussion on Maternal Health Care Deserts and Access to Care.

One of the clearest findings from the latest March of Dimes analysis is the relationship between maternity care access and clinician availability.

More than 90% of counties that lost maternity care access between 2016 and 2024 also experienced declining obstetric clinician availability. Conversely, counties that gained access were associated with improvements in clinician availability, particularly increases in OB-GYNs and certified nurse-midwives.

That makes the maternity care desert problem about more than geography.

It raises questions about whether hospitals can recruit and retain the workforce required to sustain obstetric services, how different clinicians can work together, and what alternative models can maintain access in communities where a conventional maternity service is becoming increasingly difficult to operate.

Ob Hospitalist Group works with hospitals and health systems on models including 24/7 OB hospitalist programmes, physician and certified nurse-midwife partnerships, maternal health access models for rural and underserved communities, and telehealth maternal-fetal medicine services.

As Chief Clinical Officer, Lisa Bukovac brings the operational perspective of supporting OB clinicians and maternity programmes across healthcare systems.

Michael Warren brings another side of the issue. Before joining March of Dimes, he led the Maternal and Child Health Bureau at the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, where his work included expanding maternal mental health resources, supporting mobile prenatal units and advancing simulation-based care models across more than 40 states.

The discussion comes as Ob Hospitalist Group and March of Dimes begin a new two-year partnership focused on maternity care access, including raising awareness of access challenges and exploring practical approaches to help hospitals preserve and expand obstetric services.

That distinction matters.

Maternity care deserts are increasingly well documented. The harder challenge is determining what happens next when the traditional model of obstetric care is no longer sustainable in a community.

How can health systems protect access when clinician supply is constrained? Where can OB-GYNs, certified nurse-midwives, hospitalists and maternal-fetal medicine specialists work differently? What role can telehealth play without becoming a substitute for services that still need to exist locally? And how can new care models ensure that expanding access also means providing safe, equitable and continuous care?

These are not simply maternity questions. They are questions about healthcare infrastructure.

At Women's HealthX, Lisa Bukovac and Michael Warren will bring together the perspectives of an organisation working directly with hospitals and the national maternal health organisation documenting where access is being lost.

Join Lisa Bukovac, Michael Warren and leaders from across health systems, health plans, life sciences, research and innovation at Women's HealthX, December 3-4 at Encore Boston Harbor.