childbirth

UF Health Womb to World brought maternal health resources, ultrasounds and community support to families across Alachua County on Saturday.

A new CDC report shows Florida mothers are increasingly starting prenatal care late or not at all, mirroring national trends, with rural access and Medicaid delays worsening outcomes.

National recognition points to evidence-based care, newborn support and keeping high-quality maternity services close to home.

The goal of the rankings, in their fifth year, is to help expectant parents make informed decisions in consultation with their prenatal care providers.

An expected 14.5% over the next decade reflects a trend across the country. In response, the hospital is midway through an expansion of its labor-and-delivery services.

Even as states brace for significant reductions in federal Medicaid funding, conservative legislatures across the country are passing laws that grant doula access to Medicaid beneficiaries.

The CDC report on the 2023 deaths was drawn from death certificates. The CDC counts women who died while pregnant, during childbirth and up to 42 days after birth.

A legislative effort to expand access to prenatal care in rural Oregon with mobile clinics was scuttled because those clinics would have provided abortions in rural areas.

Pregnant patients are being asked to make large payments months before they deliver, a change from decades of standard practice. Advocates worry that it allows providers to hold "treatment hostage."

A new law makes Florida the first state to permit cesarean sections in "advanced birth centers." Some health experts are leery even though many hospitals have closed maternity wards.

The experimental technique is an effort to prevent children from inheriting rare genetic diseases. Critics warn that tweaking the genetic code this way could be a slippery slope that leads to designer babies.

A new report finds that deaths related to childbirth complications-spiked nearly 80% since 2018, with COVID-19 being a factor in a quarter of the 1,178 deaths reported last year.