Community Births – A Solution to Maternity Care Deserts
According to the March of Dimes 2024 report, "Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the United States," 1,104 counties, or about 35% of the nation’s 3,142 counties, are designated as Maternity Care Deserts.
These areas lack any birthing facilities or obstetric clinicians, affecting over 2.3 million birthing individuals. As a result, 1 in 10 birthing people must travel outside their communities for essential maternity care, leading to less prenatal care and higher preterm birth rates.
Between 2020 and 2022, over 10,000 babies were born prematurely in these deserts. Establishing a Community Birth Ecosystem, which offers both clinical and non-clinical support, can help improve access to necessary care and ensure healthier outcomes for mothers and their babies.
A vibrant panel discussion, facilitated by Andrea Palmer, of the Pritzker Children’s Initiative, and panelists:
▪️Dr. Cristina Alonso Lord, Director of Pregnancy, Infancy, and Early Childhood at the MA Department of Public Health
▪️Indra Lusero, Founder/Executive Director, Elephant Circle
▪️Ebony Marcelle, Director of Midwifery, Community of Hope (FQHC)
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Planning Tool October 15, 2025
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Bridging the Divide between Child Welfare and Home Visiting Systems to Address the Needs of Pregnant and Parenting Youth in Care
Article February 21, 2025
This article presents findings from an implementation study of a pilot project that connected pregnant and parenting youth in care with home visiting services. It draws primarily on semistructured interviews conducted with the practitioners who delivered those services and the parents who received them. We find that home visiting services can be delivered successfully to pregnant and parenting youth in care and that both practitioners and parents reported that parents benefit from those services. We also find that engaging and delivering services to pregnant and parenting youth in care presents substantial challenges and that home visiting programs sometimes deviated from their standard practices in response. The study has implications for future efforts to provide home visiting services to pregnant and parenting youth in care or to other families involved in the child welfare system.