More MN women must travel out of county for childbirth

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Since 2010, many Minnesota hospitals have been closing labor and delivery units, leaving one in ten women of childbearing age without a hospital based birthing center in their home county, according to data compiled by the University of Minnesota's Rural Health Research Center.

Newly released data shows that about 126,000 reproductive-aged women in Minnesota live in counties without hospital-based obstetrics care, increasing the health risks for those who are pregnant and having children.

The University of Minnesota’s Rural Health Research Center, which published the data analysis this week, found that that number has climbed steeply since 2010, and is up 48 percent.

And that’s likely an undercount of how many women live in counties without hospital-b...