{"id":295822,"date":"2026-06-04T14:06:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T14:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295822\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T14:06:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T14:06:18","slug":"florida-ranks-6th-worst-for-childbirth-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/295822\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida ranks 6th worst for childbirth in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Florida is one of the worst states in the country to have a baby, according to a new analysis from ConsumerAffairs.<\/p>\n

The report ranked Florida as the sixth-worst state for childbirth in 2026, citing challenges tied to maternal healthcare access, affordability, postpartum support and maternal and infant health outcomes.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs analyzed data<\/a> from several sources, including the March of Dimes, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Census Bureau, FAIR Health, KFF, Bipartisan Policy Center, The Commonwealth Fund and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n

The report found that Florida has the fourth-worst access to maternal healthcare in the country.<\/p>\n

According to the analysis, 19.4% of Florida counties are considered maternity care deserts, meaning they do not have hospitals or birth centers with obstetric care and do not have obstetric providers.<\/p>\n

The report also found that 76.2% of women in Florida receive adequate or intermediate prenatal care. Adequate prenatal care means care begins within the first four months of pregnancy, with at least 80% of recommended prenatal visits completed.<\/p>\n

Florida also has about 74.7 maternal care providers for every 100,000 women, which is below the national average of 81.6 providers, according to ConsumerAffairs.<\/p>\n

The state also ranked poorly for maternal and infant health outcomes.<\/p>\n

The report found that for every 100,000 women who gave birth in Florida, 31.6 died within the following year from causes connected to their pregnancy.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs also found that Florida had 5.74 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.<\/p>\n

The report said 10.7% of live births in Florida were preterm, meaning the baby was born before 37 weeks of pregnancy. It also found that 9% of babies were born with a low birth weight, meaning less than 5 pounds, 8 ounces.<\/p>\n

Florida was not alone among Southern states near the bottom of the rankings.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs said eight of the 10 worst states for having a baby are in the South. The worst-ranked states were West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Alaska, Nevada, Alabama and Texas.<\/p>\n

The report points to broader issues with healthcare access, affordability and postpartum support across many of the lowest-ranked states.<\/p>\n

New Hampshire ranked as the best state to have a baby, followed by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Oregon.<\/p>\n

ConsumerAffairs said its rankings were based on a weighted scoring system<\/a> that considered maternal healthcare access, childbirth affordability, postpartum and family support, and maternal and infant outcomes.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

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\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2014 Florida is one of the worst states in the country to have a baby, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295823,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[147,145,124614,28,30,29,124611,124612,124610,139,124613,144,146],"class_list":["post-295822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-central-florida","tag-channel-9","tag-childbirth-affordability","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-maternal-and-infant-health","tag-maternal-care-providers","tag-maternal-healthcare","tag-orlando","tag-postpartum-support","tag-wftv","tag-wftv-channel-9"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295822\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}