Healthcare providers in Arkansas are sounding the alarm over an issue many believe has reached crisis level — access to birthing hospitals.
Since 2019, 10 Arkansas hospitals have closed their obstetrics units, leaving the state with just 30 general acute care hospitals out of 122 equipped to deliver babies, data from the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement shows. In some rural areas of Arkansas, expectant mothers are more than 45 minutes away from the nearest birthing hospital.
Yet even today, when one thinks of a hospital, the first thing that comes to mind, oftentimes, is the maternity ward…