Sofi Gratas covers rural health and health care for GPB. She joined GPB in June 2022 as a Report for America Corps member. Based in Macon, her coverage area includes Middle and South Georgia. Her focus is on the crisis facing rural communities that consistently rank near the bottom nationwide in health and health care. Sofi is a 2020 graduate of the University of Georgia's Grady School of Journalism. Prior to joining GPB, she worked at the Red and Black and WUGA.
In a decision released Wednesday, the Supreme Court of Georgia decided for the second time that a 2016 law mandating licensing and regulation requirements for lactation consultants is unconstitutional.
The review, by the American College of Surgeons, sets most standards for trauma care in the state. But standards, mostly in logistics, are missing across Georgia's 159 counties, especially south of Atlanta.
Close to 700 people in Georgia reported postpartum depressive symptoms in 2020, though the number of unreported cases likely makes that number much higher.