The UAB Highlands Family and Community Medicine Clinic now welcomes prenatal patients. In partnership with the UAB Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the clinic initiated Prenatal Care in January and saw its first patient in early February. The new service allows low-risk, pregnant people to receive the crucial care they need before giving birth.
Prenatal patients regularly meet with their providers, affording them the opportunity to discuss questions and concerns with their physician. During these appointments, patients’ vital signs are recorded. Lab tests and/or imaging may also be performed. The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) emphasizes the importance of prenatal care, indicating early and regular care improves the likelihood of a healthy pregnancy and a healthy birth.
The maternal death rate in the U.S. is higher than any other developed country in the world and Alabama ranks third. Among the causes for maternal mortality are inadequate access to pregnancy prevention and pre-conception care, lack of timely prenatal care, and under-addressed cardiovascular disease and diabetes. A nonprofit group supporting research, programs, education and advocacy for the health of all moms and babies, March of Dimes, asserts the distance a pregnant person must travel to receive care is a critical factor during pregnancy, at the time of birth and in the case of emergency. It indicates the greater the distance to access maternity care, the greater the risk of maternal morbidity and adverse infant outcomes. There is also a greater probability of financial- and/or travel-induced anxiety.
The 2023 Maternity Care Deserts Report reveals, between 2019 and 2020, the number of birthing hospitals in the state dropped 24 percent. The downward trend parallels data the Alabama Department of Public Health published in 2019, which shows a 53 percent decrease in services between 1980 and 1999.
A maternity care desert, according to March of Dimes, is a county without birth centers, OB/GYNs, certified nurse midwives, hospitals or family medicine doctors providing obstetric care. With the aid of the American Board of Family Medicine, last year the March of Dimes added the family doctor data point to definitions for maternity care deserts and level of access to maternity care. “To more accurately reflect the availability of maternity care access at the county level,” family medicine physicians who provide obstetric care are now considered.
The organization explained: “Family physicians are considered an important part of the maternity care workforce and increase access to care in rural, small or isolated communities.”
The March of Dimes report indicates women in Alabama maternity care deserts travel more than twice as far as those in areas with full access. In 2022, more than 5,100 babies were born in maternity care deserts, amounting to nearly nine percent of all Alabama’s births that year.
“Working in partnership with colleagues from OB-GYN, community health centers, county health departments, social work and others, Family Medicine is poised to play a key role in assessing and addressing many of the disparities that lead to worse outcomes for pregnant and post-partum patients,” explained Family and Community Medicine Assistant Professor Jill Marsh, MD.
Family and Community Medicine-Highlands Medical Director Erin DeLaney, MD, reiterated the importance of these alliances and says she and clinic providers are excited to offer Alabamians more options for prenatal care.
“We are thankful for the partnership with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the collaboration of many others, that have made this a possibility,” said DeLaney. “We look forward to the gateway this opportunity will provide in allowing us to care for babies, and the whole family.”
The Family Medicine Clinic at UAB Hospital-Highlands has 14 providers and seven residents prepared to treat pregnant individuals and newborns.