© 2024 Interlochen
CLASSICAL IPR | 88.7 FM Interlochen | 94.7 FM Traverse City | 88.5 FM Mackinaw City IPR NEWS | 91.5 FM Traverse City | 90.1 FM Harbor Springs/Petoskey | 89.7 FM Manistee/Ludington
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
00000178-73c0-ddab-a97a-7bf830af0000From debate over childhood vaccinations to the changing business of hospital finance, IPR has the stories of hospitals and public health that affect northern Michigan.

Michigan is losing birthing hospitals, parents and kids pay the price

Bridge Magazine/Michigan Health & Hospital Association

It’s getting harder to find hospitals where women can give birth in Michigan. The number of hospitals with obstetrics care has dropped significantly over the past four decades, and rural areas have been hit the hardest.

 

Since the 1980's nearly 100 hospitals have closed in Michigan. Only about 60 percent of those remaining have obstetrics units. In the past decade, 11 hospitals have stopped their obstetrics care.

"It’s about a third of Michigan counties ... where there’s no obstetrician," says Bridge Reporter Ted Roelofs.

Roelofs says money is the primary reason. Hospitals strapped for cash close their obstetrics unit in order to maintain other essential services.

Roelofs says the health consequences of women travelling far to get obstetrics services range from decreased prenatal care and a long, hurried drive on delivery day to premature births and sometimes death.

He says some women in Michigan drive as long as two hours to get the care they need.

"You could take that same drive and make it a three hour drive if it happened to be in January in a snowstorm," he says.

Roelofs says the federal government is working to attract more OB-GYNs to rural areas, and the University of Wisconsin has a program geared towards keeping doctors there as well.

Morgan Springer is a contributing editor and producer at Interlochen Public Radio. She previously worked for the New England News Collaborative as the host/producer of NEXT, the weekly show which aired on six public radio station in the region.