{"id":90394,"date":"2026-05-14T15:54:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=90394"},"modified":"2026-05-14T15:54:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T21:54:37","slug":"giving-birth-in-rural-colorado-maternity-deserts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/giving-birth-in-rural-colorado-maternity-deserts\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving birth far from home: Life and labor in Colorado\u2019s rural areas as fewer hospitals offer maternity care"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"When
When Jade Jacquart became pregnant with her fourth child, she knew she would face long drives on two-lane highways to get maternity care. Beauden was born on April 9, joining their blended family on their ranch and farm outside Eads on the southeastern plains of Colorado. Photo by Sonya Doctorian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jade Jacquart can predict which heifers are close to giving birth on the southeastern Colorado farm and ranch she shares with her boyfriend and their blended family. She watches how the cattle lie on the ground, or whether they have a certain kink in their tail while standing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis one will be our last,\u201d she said, pointing to the black heifer with a \u201c100\u201d on its ear tag.<\/p>\n

Jade could tell that this heifer \u2014 a female cow who hadn\u2019t given birth yet \u2014 wasn\u2019t as far along as their 45 other heifers.<\/p>\n

She watches the family\u2019s cows throughout the day. At night, when she\u2019s awake feeding her newborn son, she checks the cameras trained on the pens outside their home, to see if any heifers appear ready to give birth and might need help.<\/p>\n

\"Jade
Jade dresses Beauden, while Kynlee Dunlap, 11, (left) and Sadie Jacquart, 10, hold his hands. Jade and her boyfriend, Branden Dunlap, didn’t want to risk a birth at home or en route to the hospital and made plans to have Beauden at UCHealth Parkview Medical Center in Pueblo. Photo by Sonya Doctorian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s the season of new life at their farm, with kittens under the front deck, puppies in the basement and the calves born just yards away. And then, of course, there\u2019s Beauden, who arrived just a few weeks ago, the youngest son of Jade and her boyfriend, Branden Dunlap.<\/p>\n

They all live outside of Eads, a town of 700, where downtown\u2019s main street features a movie theater, the visitor center for the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site<\/a> outside of town and offices of the local newspaper.<\/p>\n

But when it was time to give birth to Beauden, Jade and Branden traveled nearly two hours to UCHealth Parkview Medical Center<\/a> in Pueblo.<\/p>\n

\"The
The family gathers in a neighbor\u2019s field where Branden’s oldest son, Kadan Dunlap, will spread fertilizer for his employer. From left to right, Branden holds Raeden Dunlap and Jade holds Beauden. Their children are: Kaden, 19, Landon Jacquart, 12, Hadlee Dunlap, 12, Kynlee Dunlap, 11, and Sadie Jacquart, 10. Photo by Sonya Doctorian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The family lives in what experts call a \u201cmaternity care desert.\u201d These are places in the United States that don\u2019t have a hospital, or where their hospital doesn\u2019t have a birth center. That\u2019s the case in Kiowa County, where Jade lives. A nearby hospital in La Junta \u2013 the one where she was born \u2013 closed its labor and delivery unit in April 2025. The hospital in Lamar, Prowers Medical Center, is about an hour away and has a birth center, but Jade wanted to deliver Beauden at Parkview because it has a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.<\/p>\n

Lack of maternal care is a growing problem across the U.S., one that forces expectant mothers to make sacrifices of time and travel to get care, and to develop a certain level of comfort with being far from an obstetrician or midwife should they need one. For Jade and Branden, their decision to schedule an induction date for Beauden in Pueblo boiled down to one thing:<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be the person on the side of the road having a baby,\u201d Jade said.<\/p>\n

Deep roots in southeastern Colorado have shaped Jade\u2019s life and family<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Jade has deep roots in southeastern Colorado. She\u2019s the sixth generation of her family living in this part of the state.<\/p>\n

Dr. Marion Lee Schmucker brought her into the world at Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center in La Junta. Then, 23 years later, it was Schmucker who broke her water with her first son, Landon. Jade remembers the doctor arriving at the hospital, wearing his trademark cowboy boots and hat. He delivered more than 6,000 babies before his death in 2017.<\/p>\n

\"The
Jade, Branden and their kids enjoy pizza near the farm where Kadan works. Kiowa County, where they live, is considered a maternity care desert. More than one-third of U.S. counties do not have nearby care for pregnant women. Photo by Sonya Doctorian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jade grew up nearby in Las Animas, where her father owns a farm and raises cattle. She met Branden through mutual friends about five years ago. Their blended family includes seven kids, ranging in age from 19 to newborn: Kadan Dunlap, 19, Landon Jacquart, 12, Hadlee Dunlap, 12, Kynlee Dunlap, 11, Sadie Jacquart, 10, Raeden Dunlap, 2, and now Beauden.<\/p>\n

Everyone helps on the farm and ranch, and Jade and Branden have day jobs, too. She works as a teacher at GOAL High School, an online statewide alternative high school, teaching early childhood education to students who, among other goals, want to work in or open a day care center.<\/p>\n

Branden works as a spray technician for the Colorado Department of Transportation, keeping weeds at bay along the highways and driving a snowplow in the winter. His territory spans 130 miles, from the Kansas and Oklahoma state lines to the east and south, to Kit Carson to the north and Arlington to the west.<\/p>\n

\"Hadlee
Hadlee allows a new calf to suckle her hand. Cows and heifers on their ranch will give birth to more than 45 calves this spring. Photo by Sonya Doctorian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indeed, this is a place of wide-open spaces, where two-lane highways connect small communities, forming a checkerboard map of eastern Colorado. Only the tiny specks of distant homes and ranches, a windmill or silo, perhaps a tree or two, interrupt views of the horizon. Signs warn \u201cno snowplowing 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.,\u201d and drivers can travel an hour between gas stations. Cell phone service is spotty.<\/p>\n

Jade and her family live about 20 miles outside of Eads. This is home. But having a baby would require leaving the county for a hospital two hours away.<\/p>\n

After a nearby hospital closed its labor and delivery unit, families face fewer choices for rural Colorado maternity healthcare<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In early 2025, Arkansas Valley Regional Medical Center leaders announced they would close the labor and delivery unit there because the hospital could no longer sustain its $220,000 monthly deficit.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeeping a labor and delivery unit open is harder in rural areas,\u201d hospital leaders said in a January 2025 press release announcing their decision.<\/p>\n

They blamed low birth rates in the area, along with Medicaid reimbursement rates that don\u2019t cover the cost of services.<\/p>\n

That left the nearest birth center in Lamar, about 40 minutes from Eads. But Jade had decided to have her three other children, including Beauden, at Parkview.<\/p>\n

\"Branden
Branden is a volunteer firefighter with the Kiowa County Fire Protection District. He said he’s never had to deliver a baby, \u201cand I hope I never have to.\u201d Photo by Sonya Doctorian.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to be stuck at the hospital if my baby had to go to a NICU at another hospital,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

When Jade became pregnant with Beauden, she was 34 years old, which doctors call \u201cadvanced maternal age.\u201d Starting at that age, moms face a higher risk of complications during pregnancy and birth. With her three recent pregnancies, she has worked with her medical providers to schedule an induction date, rather than let her pregnancy go full term. She wanted to make sure she had time to arrange childcare for her kids and get to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Her induction date for Beauden was April 8, about a week before her due date.<\/p>\n

If worse came to worst, she and Branden figured they could deal with an emergency birth if they had to. He\u2019s been a volunteer firefighter with the Kiowa County Fire Protection District for half his life, since he was 18. Still, he said, he\u2019s never had to deliver a baby, \u201cand I hope I never have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have calves all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cI can deliver a calf, but there\u2019s a lot more at stake with a baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The number of maternity care deserts is growing across the country<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In southeastern Colorado, the map is dotted with counties that experts classify as maternity care deserts. These are counties where there are no hospitals offering obstetric services or birth centers and no obstetricians, gynecologists or certified nurse midwives in the county, according to the March of Dimes\u2019 2024 report \u201cNowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere you live matters when it comes to the options available for maternity care,\u201d according to the report, which paints this picture of maternity care:<\/p>\n