They live in an obstetric desert: 167,000 French "reside in a sub-dense community of midwives" and located "45 minutes or more from the nearest maternity", according to a study published Thursday by the Drees. France has about 13,000 communes considered "under-dense" in midwives, because they group the 12.5% of the population "with the lowest accessibility" to these health professionals, explains the statistical service social ministries.
This corresponds to "nearly 8.3 million people, including 1.6 million women aged 15 to 49 years," called "of childbearing age." By superimposing this map with that of "people living 45 minutes or more from the nearest maternity hospital", it appears that "1.5% of the population meets these two difficulties, ie 968,000 people, including 167,000 women of childbearing age ".
Possible "pregnancy difficulties" "This proportion rises to 5.4% by keeping the threshold at 30 minutes," adds the Drees, which points out that "the accumulation of a low accessibility to some (midwives, ed) and a distance to others (maternity, ed) can lead to difficulties in pregnancy monitoring.
More midwives, fewer maternities. The number of midwives, however, increased by 3% per year between 1999 and 2017, "faster than the population as a whole". On the other hand, the number of maternity wards fell by nearly 40% in mainland France between 1996 and 2016, from more than 800 to less than 500.