The plan includes recommendations to improve maternal and infant health in South Carolina.

The South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health (IMPH), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to collectively inform policy to improve health and health care in South Carolina, released its newest taskforce report – Improving Maternal and Infant Health:  Increasing Access to Care in Rural South Carolina. The report provides an action plan with recommendations related to care delivery, the workforce needed to support moms and babies, training and education, and nonmedical drivers of maternal and infant health.  

According to the South Carolina Maternal Morbidity and Mortality Review Committee’s 2025 Legislative Report, almost 90% (88.9%) of maternal deaths in South Carolina were found to be preventable in 2021. Additionally, in 2022, 2023 and 2024, South Carolina earned an F on its March of Dimes report card for its preterm birth rate. Given these and other concerning statistics, IMPH convened the Improving Maternal and Infant Health: Increasing Access to Care in Rural SC Taskforce, which consisted of experts from across South Carolina, including state agency leaders and those working in communities supporting moms and their babies.

“The health concerns around mothers and babies in South Carolina are alarming, but a lot of the common issues we see are preventable,” says Maya Pack, executive director of IMPH. “This taskforce has spent months researching and discussing actionable solutions to better the health of mothers and infants— and through collaboration and action, we know it can be done.”

The taskforce report includes an action plan to improve the health of mothers and babies in South Carolina that includes the organizations and agencies that will be leading and supporting the action steps as well as proposed timelines for action. Specific recommendations include:

• Ensuring all women in South Carolina’s rural communities have access to affordable and convenient prenatal and postpartum care within 30 miles of their home or place of work through mobile care units deployed to the most underserved areas of the state, capitalizing on recent advances in telehealth to increase remote monitoring and replicating successful group prenatal education.

• Expanding and empowering essential members of the prenatal and postpartum workforce who provide care to moms and infants in rural areas of South Carolina by promoting team-based care, innovation in reimbursement policy and adequate pay.

• Addressing transportation challenges and barriers by implementing models that work for high-risk and high-need moms and babies and replicating them in rural areas across the state.

“There’s a reason this report is focused on mothers and infants living in rural South Carolina,” says Dr. Lisa Waddell, taskforce chair. “Women in rural areas of the state often experience poor health outcomes due to the unique barriers they face when compared to their urban counterparts, including health care provider maldistribution across the state, labor and delivery unit and hospital closures in rural areas, transportation challenges, lack of insurance coverage, and lower household incomes, to name a few.”

By focusing on expanding access to care, enhancing the workforce, providing training and education, and focusing on nonmedical factors affecting health, this action plan aims to create lasting improvements in the health outcomes of mothers and babies across South Carolina.

For more information on the taskforce’s findings, access the full report on IMPH’s website. For more information on IMPH, visit https://imph.org/.

About The South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health

The South Carolina Institute of Medicine and Public Health (IMPH) is an independent, nonprofit organization working to collectively inform policy to improve health and health care in South Carolina. IMPH provides nonpartisan, evidence-based information to guide policymakers in making impactful health policy decisions. Learn more at https://imph.org.

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