Tennessee earns D- grade on annual infant and maternal health report card

Tennessee’s preterm birth rate rose again, totaling more than 11% of births in 2023.

The health policy nonprofit March of Dimes issues what it calls a “report card” on preterm births every year. These stats offer a snapshot of infant and maternal health in Tennessee.

On Thursday, the group gave the state a D- — noting that its rate got worse from the year before. The overall rate grew by 0.3 percentage points year over year.

Some groups fared worse than others. The preterm birth rate was significantly higher for Black Tennesseans — at more than 15% of births.

The report also breaks down its grading system for multiple counties, and three — Rutherford, Montgomery and Shelby — got Fs. A few counties did get better grades. Middle Tennessee’s Williamson and Wilson counties each earned a C+. East Tennessee’s Washington County, which is home to Johnson City and the medical school at East Tennessee State University, got a B.

The organization criticized the state for several policies under TennCare, the state’s Medicaid program. Tennessee is one of fewer than a dozen states still refusing Medicaid expansion, which means more low-income workers are unemployed. The report chides the state because TennCare doesn’t cover doula services or postpartum mental health screenings.

The report also included the latest number of Tennesseans who died of pregnancy-related causes up to a year after delivery. Tennessee’s rate was more than 41 out of every 100,000 births, ranking it second to worst in the country.