LoginDo some Wisconsin counties have no maternal health care providers?
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Yes.
Nine of Wisconsinβs 72 counties are βmaternity care desertsβ: no hospitals and birth centers offering obstetric care and no obstetric providers such as obstetricians.
The nine, according to the latest March of Dimes report (2024), are largely rural:Β
Adams, Douglas, Forest, Kewaunee, Lafayette, Marquette, Oconto, Pepin and Rusk.
Maternal care deserts drive maternal mortality rates, which generally are higher for Black women and women in rural areas, according to a 2025 study by Brown University researchers.
Individuals in states with a high prevalence of maternity care deserts had 34.2% greater risk of maternal mortality and 18.3% greater risk of infant mortality, Yale University researchers found in 2025.
The Wisconsin Office of Rural Health at the University of Wisconsin-Madison recommended extending pregnant womenβs Medicaid coverage to 12 months postpartum, from two months, to improve care and hospital finances.
Gov. Tony Evers recently signed legislation for that extension.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- March of Dimes: Maternity Care Desert
- Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine: Maternity Care Deserts: Key Drivers of the National Maternal Health Crisis
- AJPM Focus: State-Level Prevalence of Maternity Care Deserts: Association With Healthcare Access, Utilization, and Outcomes Among Medicaid Recipients
- Wisconsin Office of Rural Health: Obstetric Delivery Services and Workforce in Rural Wisconsin Hospitals 2024
- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Lawmakers vote to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage to a full year
- The Commonwealth Fund: Positive Outliers: How Some Rural Communities Maintain Access to Labor and Delivery Services
- National Rural Health Association: Maternal health in rural America
- University of Wisconsin-Madison Collaborative for Reproductive Equity: New CORE brief explores Dobbs decisionβs impact on the ob-gyn workforce in Wisconsin
- PBS Wisconsin: Maternal health care in Wisconsin and the future of Medicaid
Do some Wisconsin counties have no maternal health care providers? is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
