More than 40% of Detroit moms got no prenatal care

In her column today Rochelle Riley of the Detroit Free Press discusses some of the alarming maternal and infant health trends that emerged from a recent demographic study by Data Driven Detroit.

The study showed that more than 40% of Detroit mothers did not receive any prenatal care in 2007. It also indicated that primary care physicians and specialists in gynecology and obstetrics are leaving the city so there are fewer doctors to serve a largely uninsured population with a growing number of teen mothers.

Riley quotes Dr. Herb Smitherman, assistant dean of the Wayne State University School of Medicine as saying, “If we don’t get health reform, if we don’t get those uninsured by some plan, the number of uninsured will continue to rise and the number on Medicaid will continue to rise, but the number of physicians to serve that population will continue to decrease.”

And while mothers and children are not receiving adequate prenatal care, a major decrease in the overall birth rate gives the school system an uncertain future.

Detroit births dropped by 49.5% from 1990 until 2007, and according to Data Driven Detroit the main reason is that people of childbearing age are leaving the city.

Riley writes:

As the mayor embraces the reality of how to serve a shrinking city, and Bobb struggles with a declining school population, they must convince Detroiters who either are ignorant of or distrust that same reality.

But it is not a matter of trust. It is a matter of fact.

Detroit lost nearly 200,000 people over 17 years. Because the remaining, mostly older population is having fewer and fewer children, the city also is losing its ability to grow past the loss.