(Iowa City) Iowa is at the bottom of the list of states regarding the number of obstetricians.
“The state of Iowa as a whole is ranked towards the bottom of the country for the number of maternity care providers per capita,” said Dr. Jeff Quinlan, chair of the University of Iowa’s Department of Family Medicine.
Quinlan says half of Iowa’s rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies in the last two decades because of staffing and cost. For example, since 2000, 31 Iowa counties, mostly rural, have closed their obstetric services. By 2020, only 46 out of 99 counties had hospitals providing obstetric services, down from 77 counties in previous years. Iowa has the fewest OBGYNs per capita in the U.S., according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Dr. Quinlan says it means moms deliver in emergency rooms and sometimes on the way to a larger hospital. The University is now working with rural emergency room staff to prepare them for deliveries.
