Podcast #116 · 12 May 2026
Understanding the Birth Crisis: A Structural Collapse Perspective
- Healthcare Access
- Advanced Practice Providers (APPs)
- Emergency Medicine
- Policy
- Obstetrics
- Physician Burnout
- Telehealth
- Physician Workforce
- OBGYN
- Gynecology
- Rural Practice
What happens when maternity care deserts stop being just a “rural problem” and start impacting your own labor and delivery unit? On this episode of BackTable Women’s Health, host Dr. Nicole Faulkner interviews Dr. Yamicia Connor about the evolving “birth worker crisis.” Dr. Connor reframes the issue as a long-standing structural collapse accelerated by deliberate policy decisions, not simply sudden burnout.
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Dr. Connor describes how the systematic decoupling of clinical science from federal and state infrastructure has shifted legal and operational risk onto individual physicians, leading to illogical practice patterns and confusion about the standard of care, especially in settings like emergency departments. A review of the 2024 March of Dimes data showing over 35% of U.S. counties are now maternity care deserts, and JAMA-tracked data in states like Idaho, where nearly a third of OBs left between 2022 and 2024. She warns that as more rural units close, regional and academic hospitals will absorb sicker and less managed patients, straining L&D units, NICUs, staffing, and training pipelines. To address this crisis, Dr. Connor calls for system-level coordination, stronger leadership from professional societies, improved care navigation, expanded mid-level support, and enhanced telehealth infrastructure to extend obstetric expertise.