Tennessee plagued by maternity-care deserts
Certified nurse midwife Kate Fouquier checks on a patient who is 22 weeks pregnant at a Regional One Health primary care facility in Memphis. Fouquier has practiced midwifery for more than 25 years. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
More than a third of Tennessee counties are maternity-care deserts, meaning there are no hospitals providing obstetric care, no birth centers, no OB-GYNs and no certified nurse midwives, putting pregnant women in a possibly risky situation.
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Maternity UTHSC College of Nursing Sarah Rhoads Kate Fouquier Planned Parenthood Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
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Aisling Mäki
Aisling Mäki has spent the better part of two decades writing about Memphis. A former digital journalist for WMC Action News 5 and staff reporter for Memphis Daily News, her work has also appeared in The Commercial Appeal, High Ground News, I Love Memphis, Inside Memphis Business, The Memphis Flyer, Memphis Parent, Memphis Magazine and Tri-State Defender.
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