LISTEN: A new report finds the quality of care for pregnant patients in Georgia depends on where you live. GPB’s Ellen Eldridge explains. 

For years, the United States has been considered one of the unsafest places to give birth among developed nations. That remains especially true for Black women during the height of the COVID pandemic. Photo by Getty Images

Credit: PBS News Hour

U.S. News & World Report's new report found that access plays a key role in quality of care when it comes to pregnancy and maternal health care.

An all-time high of 817 hospitals nationwide submitted data, health data scientist Jennifer Winston said.

"We would love to see more hospitals from Georgia participate in the survey going forward," she said. "Part of it is that hospitals, especially hospitals providing obstetric care, are really strapped right now. So finding the time to participate in a survey can be a big challenge."

Introduced last year, the Maternity Care Access Hospital designation was awarded to 118 hospitals for the 2025 ratings. The report also includes refinements to the scoring methodology, including increased weighting of the racial and ethnic disparities measure and increased weighting of the birthing-friendly practices measure.

Black women in Georgia are twice as likely to die of pregnancy-related complications than white women.

This has been true for decades.

Maternal death rates have consistently been the highest among Black women, and those high rates more than doubled over the past 20 years. For Native American and Alaska Native people, the rates have tripled.

Earlier this year, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new maternal mortality data, showing that 817 women died during 2022 — a decrease from the 1,205 deaths the year before, but roughly in line with the 861 deaths from 2020.

The U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is now working with the Black Maternal Health Caucus on a yearlong Enhancing Maternal Health Initiative that addresses maternal mortality and maternal health disparities in partnership with mothers, grantees, community organizations, and state and local health officials.

Of the 10 Georgia facilities that responded to the survey, Emory Decatur Hospital and Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center had top scores using metrics like rates of C-section delivery and severe unexpected newborn complications. Winston said 65 hospitals in Georgia were invited to submit data for evaluation.

"The C-section rate among uncomplicated pregnancies is pretty high in Georgia," Winston said. "It's 28.9%, which is one of the higher C-section rates in the country."

But seven of the state's hospitals that participated in the survey have C-section rates that are a lot lower than that, she said. Similarly, five hospitals that participated in this survey had vaginal birth after C-section rates that are higher than the state average.

Piedmont Atlanta Hospital, a general medical and surgical facility, was rated high-performing in four adult specialties and 17 procedures and conditions.

Information about the metrics that are most important to patients is available online so people can evaluate their options and inform their decisions as they choose a hospital for their maternity care.

On average, Maternity Care Access Hospitals are over 16 miles further from another maternity hospital than hospitals that are not recognized as Maternity Care Access Hospitals. 

"Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center because it is far away from the nearest hospital providing obstetric care and it is providing excellent care," Winston said. "That is why we recognized it as a [best] maternity care access hospital."

RELATED:

More than 40% of Georgia women live in communities considered maternity deserts. If all of the Maternity Care Access Hospitals identified by U.S. News were to close, the number of counties considered to be Maternity Care Deserts would expand by 4.9%. 

Earlier this year, the Commonwealth Fund's scorecard ranked states' performance on maternal and infant mortality rates, access to maternity providers and uninsured rates among pregnant women.

Georgia's report specifically mentions maternal and infant mortality, poor access to health care and a lack of insurance for people of reproductive age (15 to 44), lead author Sara Collins said.

"Women's inability to afford needed health care of all kinds is most pronounced in states that haven't expanded their Medicaid programs," Collins said. "And we see that pattern play out in Georgia in particular."

Tags: Georgia  maternal mortality  maternity care  maternity desert  Atlanta  health  health  Health