Access to maternal health care in Central Illinois isn’t the same for all women, and that inequity can lead to dangerous outcomes for women and babies, a panel of experts said Tuesday.
Minimizing social risk factors is key to improving access, panelists said. For example, if a woman has no transportation she can’t get to doctor’s appointment. If she can’t speak English, communication is difficult.
“All of these things then snowball into medical risk factors, and then could result in a poor birth outcome,” said Sophie Rebert, who leads the Better Birth Outcomes [BBO] program for the McLean County Health Department.
Rebert was one of four speakers on a local maternal health care panel that convened Tuesday at the Illinois State University Alumni Center. The Women to Women Giving Circle, which is part of the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation, hosted the free event that drew an audience of about 50 women.
Transportation challenges, difficulty acquiring obstetric care, and the limitations of language barriers are major priorities to be addressed in Central Illinois, according to the panelists.
CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] maternal health care reports show low income, as well as other barriers to accessing high-quality care, can negatively affect how a woman is able to manage medical conditions that increase risks during pregnancy, childbirth and after. Those include diabetes and high blood pressure. Notably, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women.
Statistically, higher rates of diabetes and hypertension are present in some Black and brown communities, said Rebert. But sometimes those aren’t addressed during pregnancy.
“Historically Black women have been mistreated by the medical community, [and that’s resulted in that population having] a fear of the medical community. And there are some biases within providers against those communities, as well,” she said.
Fellow panelist Dietra Kulicke told the crowd that from 2015-2020 more than 525 Illinois women died while pregnant or within a year of a pregnancy.
Kulicke is a Chestnut Health Systems executive and member of the McLean County Community Health Council. It was on behalf of the council she sat on Tuesday’s panel. She shared maternal health care data collected for the 2025 Community Health Needs Assessment and from the state’s most recent Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Report.
During the report’s time period, researchers found “91% of pregnancy-related deaths were potentially preventable,” Kulicke said.
Socioeconomic factors
Medically high-risk pregnancies sometimes develop from socially high-risk situations, said Rebert.
“If someone is unhoused, or if someone is a victim of domestic violence, or has had DCFS [Illinois Department of Children and Family Services] involvement, they are more likely to have a poor birth outcome,” she said. “If we can mitigate some of those factors and help with resources and referrals to help offset those things, then providing access to (medical) care as well — I think that’s going to improve a lot of lives.”
“Our overarching goal is to decrease rates of prematurity, low birthweight, and very birthweight,” said Rebert, noting BBO staff include nurses and social workers who work with underserved clients and help make connections to obstetricians, pediatricians and other needed services, depending on what risks are present.
Rebert said only about half of the practicing obstetricians in the county take Medicaid patients, and of those who do they have a cap on how many they’ll take on weekly or monthly. “So it’s limited,” she said.
Many of the women facing low-income challenges also find getting to and from medical appointments problematic, for complicated reasons, she said. Among the doctors who see the women on Medicaid, they are strict about tardiness or absences. That can lead to them being dropped as a patient, said Rebert.
Rebert said barriers to access exist among the non-English speaking populations too. The county health department and hospitals do provide translators, but many private practice doctors do not, she said.
“It makes a huge difference to have someone explaining things to you in your own language," said panelist Erin Fogarty, the Livingston County Health Department administrator.
Rural hospital delivery options evaporate
Fogarty said in Livingston County accessing maternal health care has become extremely difficult.
Livingston County has very little maternal health care options for its residents, despite the wide swath of the state it occupies. It’s the fourth largest of Illinois’ 102 counties, geographically.
“We’re seeing clients come in, in their fifth, sixth, sometimes seventh month of pregnancy. And not having had any prenatal care because they can’t get to it — because it’s not available,” she said.
Rebert noted that such maternal care deserts — like the one in Livingston County — cause a domino effect. As pregnant women in the maternal care desert are required to travel, it then puts more strain on the systems in place in neighboring counties, like McLean County.
Also on the panel was ISU Mennonite College of Nursing faculty member Denise Hammer, who is a maternal nursing expert.
Hammer said if women have to drive far for care in emergencies, it's unlikely responders can stop labor. She said, responding to that issue, she's been part of a group involving the Red Cross that has helped author a training book for how to resuscitate a newborn. The Essential Neonatal Advanced Life Support is an illustrated manual intended for emergency medical technicians, as well as emergency room doctors.
