WUNC

By: Grant Holub-Moorman & Anita Rao

February 20, 2020 

Host Anita Rao tackles the maternal health crisis in North Carolina on this installment of Embodied, our series about sex, relationships and your health.

One birthing center remains in the region west of Asheville. Pregnant people in Cherokee County are facing higher costs in hospitals across state lines or driving more than 60 miles to the closest in-state option. Lilly Knoepp of Blue Ridge Public Radio shares her reporting about how travel distance affects health outcomes.

Keisha Bentley-Edwards also joins the conversation to talk about the reasons and solutions for persistently worse healthcare for black people during pregnancy. Bentley-Edwards is an assistant professor at the Duke University School of Medicine. And Dr. Alison Stuebe outlines the ways Medicaid and other insurers could improve overall health outcomes by expanding prenatal and postpartum care. Stuebe is an associate professor in the department of maternal and child health and the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Read the full article here .