There are 92 obstetrician-gynecologists per 100,000 residents on the South Side, compared with 229 obstetrician-gynecologists per 100,000 on the North Side, according to the Health Care Council of Chicago’s February report on the future of safety-net hospitals.
While some health systems have opened clinics on the South Side, women often are directed to facilities in other areas—the Illinois Medical District on the Near West Side, for example—when it comes time to give birth or address certain concerns, Edwards said, noting that many women find it difficult to connect with providers if they’re seeing a different person every time they go to the doctor’s office.
Advocate Aurora Health, which runs Advocate Trinity Hospital, is working with federally-qualified health centers to create “a pipeline between the patients they see in the office and giving those patients a hospital home,” Lewis said. The 26-hospital system also is looking to develop agreements with area hospitals that have closed their labor and delivery units to ensure patients have a place to go for care, she said.
It’s not uncommon for women of color show up to the emergency department saying, “This is my fourth baby. I tried to see a provider once and had trouble getting an appointment,” Lewis said. Going without prenatal care “leads to higher-risk delivery and increased risk for perinatal morbidity—and sometimes even increased risk for mortality.”
Mercy Hospital & Medical Center’s impending sale to a Michigan biomedical technology firm will preserve access to comprehensive maternity services in Bronzeville. Elected officials and community members rallied against Mercy’s initial plan to close, with many saying that losing access to maternal health services in the area would be detrimental for residents.
Meanwhile, the state has been working for years to better understand pregnancy-related complications and deaths—particularly among women of color, who have higher rates of poor health outcomes.
Earlier this month, Illinois became the first state to extend Medicaid benefits for new moms to 12 months postpartum from just 60 days to improve health outcomes. The state also moved to cover doula services for those one Medicaid. And a bill introduced earlier this year by state Rep. Robyn Gabel, (D-Evanston), aims to increase the number of birthing centers in Illinois, with a focus on certain areas—including Chicago’s South Side—to address “disparate perinatal and child health outcomes.”
Among Chicago women who experienced a pregnancy-associated death, 71 percent were covered by Medicaid (the government-run health insurance program for low-income people) and 19 percent had private insurance, according to a 2019 report from the Chicago Department of Public Health.