The Impact of Maternity Service Closures on Health Access

Freestanding birth centers are closing across the U.S., widening gaps in maternity and reproductive health access. Reporting shows an upward trend in closures that is shrinking local capacity for low-risk births and postpartum care, producing immediate shortfalls for communities that relied on nearby birth-center services.

Financial pressures, staffing shortages, and regulatory hurdles are driving birth center closures. Clinics have reduced hours, suspended services, and struggled to maintain consistent on-call coverage. Rural and other underserved populations are losing the most local maternity capacity.

These closures compound broader system strain and echo hospital labor-and-delivery unit shutdowns. Longer travel distances and constrained capacity at remaining units are lengthening referral pathways, increasing wait times, and stressing emergency transfer logistics—raising the risk of delayed intrapartum care.

Loss of local birth-center services also threatens immediate and ongoing contraceptive access. Short-acting methods, counseling, and initiation or follow-up for long-acting reversible contraception are vulnerable when local dispensing and follow-up are interrupted. Mapping alternate dispensing sites, stocking allowable bridging supplies, and expanding telehealth counseling can reduce acute and chronic gaps.

Key Takeaways:

• Increasing closures are narrowing local maternity and contraceptive service supply, reducing nearby options for birth and postpartum care and producing immediate access shortfalls.
• Rural, low-income, and Medicaid populations face greater travel and coverage barriers, increasing the likelihood of delayed or foregone care.
• Proactive referral pathways, maintained on-site bridging supplies where permitted, and scaled telehealth contraception counseling can preserve continuity of care and reduce gaps.