CVC Rural Texas Vulnerability
Deep Dive: Maternal Health - Access Gaps with Intergenerational Consequences
Maternal health offers a significant, equally urgent example of how rural vulnerability manifests through access constraints. According to the CVC, there are more than 107,000 women aged 18-34 residing in rural Texas census tracts. This makes up more than 8 percent of the entire rural population. Large portions of rural Texas function as obstetric deserts, requiring pregnant individuals to travel 70 miles or more for prenatal care and delivery services. These distances delay care, disrupt continuity, and increase the risk of adverse maternal and infant outcomes and mortality. Maternal vulnerability is rarely driven by a single factor. It reflects the intersection of chronic disease, transportation barriers, provider shortages, behavioral health needs, and social stressors, many of which are magnified in rural settings. Without intentional intervention, these risks compound across pregnancies and generations. Nearly all rural counties in Texas are designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas 3 . Many high- vulnerability rural tracts have no mental or behavioral
health provider within a reasonable travel distance, forcing emergency departments and primary care clinics to function as default mental health access points. This results in crisis-driven care rather than prevention or longitudinal management. The recently launched North Texas Maternal Health Accelerator (NTX-MHA) is testing how these challenges can be addressed through an innovative, scalable new model. By using CVC and clinical data to identify high- risk populations early and pairing those insights with proactive outreach, iron distribution, care navigation, digital engagement, and dissemination of proven care delivery through clinical simulations, the Accelerator aligns clinical care, behavioral health support, and community-based resources around the needs of pregnant individuals. While launched in North Texas, this model is intentionally designed to scale, particularly to rural regions where access barriers are greatest and the return on early intervention can be even higher.
Figure 2: Regional NTX- MHA map highlighting vulnerability via the CVC (green background), the prevalence and density of pregnant women experiencing Serious Obstetric Complications
(red heat map) and phase 1 of the iron distribution sites.
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PHONE: 214.385.4876
3000 Pegasus Park Drive Suite 1050, Dallas Texas, 75247
PCCI
www.pccinnovation.org
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