Maternal Health

Despite closures at other rural hospitals across North Carolina, the labor and delivery unit at UNC Health Chatham is a recent addition.

Pregnant and newly postpartum women found themselves displaced by Helene — confronting canceled appointments, reworked birth plans and the loss of their belongings.

Complaints about pregnant women being turned away from emergency rooms spiked in the months after states began enacting strict abortion laws following the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

Doctors in states with strict abortion restrictions say an increasing number of pregnant women are seeking early prenatal testing. They're hoping to detect serious problems while they still have time to choose whether to continue the pregnancy or have an abortion.

Centers known for discouraging clients from accessing abortions continue to receive public money, despite media reports of taxpayer funds spent on religious material and what critics call little oversight.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has provided more than $4 million to North Carolina to help close the gap in maternal mortality rates between Black and white mothers in underserved areas.

There will be no COVID baby boom in the United States. In fact, a decrease in childbirth is expected, with existential fear prevailing over hormones and…

Pregnancy and postpartum experiences can already be rife with anxiety. But since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, expectant and new mothers’…

Pregnancy and postpartum experiences can already be rife with anxiety. But since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, expectant and new mothers’…

Childbearing in the United States is more deadly than in any other developed nation. Despite medical advances over the last few decades, the number of…