Issue link: http://accesshealth.uberflip.com/i/1543025
a cce s s H ea l t h N ews . n e t Fe b r u a ry 2 0 2 6 Volume 11 | Issue No. 104 16 aH Four Years, Same Grade: Why America's Maternal Health Crisis Won't Budge F or the fourth consecutive year, the United States earned a D+ grade for maternal and infant health from March of Dimes, marking the longest stretch of the organization's lowest grade in its 17-year report card history. The grade reflects a 10.4% preterm birth rate that has barely moved since 2021, when it hit a decade-long high of 10.5%. Behind that static le er lies a health care system stuck in reverse. The nation's best grade—a C+ in 2014—now seems impossibly distant. The preterm birth rate that year was 9.8%. A decade later, despite increased awareness, advocacy and proposed legislation, more than 370,000 babies are born too early each year in the wealthiest nation in the world. Two viral videos from November 2025 brought the crisis into sharp focus. In Dallas, Karrie Jones screamed in a wheelchair at Dallas Regional Medical Center, a 172-bed acute care hospital in Mesquite, Texas. Doubled over in agony as a nurse methodically conducted intake paperwork, Jones screams out that her baby is coming "right now" while the nurse asks routine questions. Her mother asks the nurse directly: "Y'all treat all your patients like this or just the Black ones?" Jones remained in the waiting area for more than 30 minutes. Twelve minutes after the video was recorded, she gave birth. Her mother said the baby was born with his eyes open due to stress and had meconium in the amniotic fluid, both signs of fetal distress. By Chrissey Breault, Staff Writer Less than a week later, in Crown Point, Indiana, Mercedes Wells was wheeled out of Franciscan Health Crown Point hospital in tears, discharged despite contractions one minute apart. The hospital is a 199-bed facility in suburban Indiana with a Level III certified Family Birth Center equipped to handle complex maternal medical conditions. Wells, an experienced mother who had given birth three times before at the same facility, said she spent six hours there without seeing a doctor. Wells's sister- in-law, Cherise Thompson, told ABC News Wells repeatedly begged the nurse, saying, "I'm really in active labor. I can feel it, contractions as I walk. I mean my pain. I'm telling you, I can feel it." Eight minutes after leaving the hospital parking lot, Wells gave birth on the side of a road. Her husband Leon, with no medical training, delivered their daughter in their truck.