Inside a community still fighting for maternity care
Hi Reader, A story that I’m particularly proud of this year is a piece I wrote for our September Health Month series titled “ Two years after the closure of Leominster’s maternity unit, a region is struggling .” This in-depth story explores the reality of maternity care access in Leominster two years after the city lost its local maternity ward. In my reporting, I heard accounts of women giving birth in cars, ambulances, emergency departments, or reaching a maternity unit just in time to deliver. These experiences are a far cry from what many expect in a state that consistently ranks first in the country for its health care system, and telling this story helped shed light on an increasingly grave issue in a state assumed to be working well for everyone. Not only was I able to spotlight the Gateway City of Leominster and the North-Central Massachusetts region in this piece, I was also able to explore the statewide landscape of maternity care access following a string of labo...
