For expectant mothers in eastern Kern County, the closure of Ridgecrest Regional Hospital’s maternity ward means a drive of more than an hour each way to deliver a baby. Across the country, that kind of trip is becoming more common.
More than one in three U.S. counties — 34.6% — are now maternity care deserts, meaning they have no birthing facility and no obstetric clinician, according to “Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S.,” the 2026 edition of March of Dimes’ annual report, released August 11, 2026. Those counties are home to 2.4 million women of reproductive age, where about 149,000 babies are born each year. More than half of U.S. counties lack a hospital with a labor and delivery unit, affecting nearly 370,000 births annually. Women living in maternity care deserts travel roughly three times farther, on average, to give birth.
The report counted at least 96 publicly reported labor and delivery unit closures between January 2024 and May 2026, across 35 states. In nearly 60% of the affected counties, the closed unit was the county’s only birthing facility. The deserts are concentrated in the South and Midwest, where 38.7% of counties qualify, compared with 26.4% in the West and 5.1% in the Northeast.
The closures do not fall evenly. Research from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published in December 2023, found that hospitals most likely to close obstetric units are those most reliant on Medicaid, which reimburses below commercial insurance rates, and that obstetric unit losses are more common at units serving a larger share of Black patients. NPR’s coverage of the 2026 report described the scarcity of care as particularly concerning for Black mothers.
Three closures announced or completed in 2026 illustrate the pattern. In Maine, the MaineHealth board voted in early August to close the labor and delivery unit at MaineHealth Lincoln Hospital in Damariscotta effective December 18, 2026, moving deliveries to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick and leaving Lincoln, Waldo, and Sagadahoc counties with no delivering hospital. The system cited a “new regional model” and insufficient staffing; it will be Maine’s 12th maternity unit closure since 2015. In Washington, D.C., MedStar Washington Hospital Center — which delivers about a third of the District’s babies — closed one of its two postpartum units, an 11-bed unit, in late July, leaving 18 postpartum beds. The hospital cited declining birth volume; a D.C. Hospital Association report showed a 15% year-over-year drop in births districtwide. D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson, citing city health department data, said the hospital had gone on labor and delivery diversion 17 times in 2026 before the closure, and the hospital’s nurses publicly opposed the move. In Nevada, Henderson Hospital announced August 12 that its maternity and NICU services will end on or about September 30, 2026, citing a declining Southern Nevada birth rate, physician retirements, and fewer NICU referrals; about 100 staff are affected. More than 70% of Nevada’s rural hospitals lack labor and delivery, and the median drive time for that care was 56 minutes as of July.
California is not exempt. Hospitals in the state have closed or suspended nearly 50 maternity wards over the last decade, with the trend accelerating in the past four years, and the closures disproportionately affect Black, Latino, and low-income communities, according to CalMatters, which counted 12 California counties with no hospital delivering babies as of April 2024. In Kern County, beyond Ridgecrest, Good Samaritan Hospital in Bakersfield, Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley, and Kern Valley Hospital in Lake Isabella are among Central Valley facilities that have cut labor and delivery services. In the Antelope Valley, Palmdale Regional Medical Center reportedly closed its labor and delivery unit in late October 2023, roughly two years after opening it. In the Inland Empire, Corona Regional Medical Center ended labor and delivery on January 30, 2026, citing fewer births.
The national share of desert counties is roughly steady — March of Dimes says it is similar to its 2024 report — but the closures continue at pace, with 96 units lost in about 29 months. The organization warns that recent federal Medicaid changes could create additional barriers to maternity care in the years ahead.
Drafted by News Observed Editorial AI, human reviewed and published.