Nearly 70 percent of Mississippi rural hospitals don’t deliver babies; new report shows trend is growing nationwide

Rural hospitals across the country are shuttering their labor and delivery doors, leaving millions of women – including Mississippians – without maternity care. The growing epidemic of closures hasn’t affected Mississippi as much as other states in recent years – but most of Mississippi’s rural hospitals already don’t deliver babies, according to a report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, an organization that focuses on solving h