TAMPA, Fla. – Driving an hour away to the hospital due to lack of access to maternity care is a reality for pregnant women as a new report out shows fewer hospitals are delivering babies.

What we know:

Expectant mothers know to expect a lot of doctor visits.

“You go to the doctor every four weeks in the beginning, every two weeks in the second or in the third trimester and then every week for that last month,” said Dr. Mary Ashley Cain, an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at TGH/USF Health.

But, those trips are easier said than done for moms-to-be in rural communities, traveling more than 50 minutes on average in Florida.

“We do have those patients that are in those rural areas that, again, have to travel a distance from Hardee to Hillsborough, from Pasco to North Pinellas, you know, that have to come quite a distance just for their appointments,” said Careen Rush, the maternal telehealth program manager at Orlando Health Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg.

By the numbers:

A January 2026 maternity care report from the Center for Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform found less than 33 percent of rural hospitals in Florida provide maternity care. 

More than 120 rural hospitals nationwide closed since 2020, the report said.

“There is always a risk to closing labor and delivery units, especially in a more rural area due to the amount of resources that it does take to care for both mom and baby,” said Dr. Victoria Selley, chief medical officer at AdventHealth Sebring in Highlands County.

READ: Bay Area health care systems expanding as region continues to see major growth

AdventHealth Sebring is the only hospital in a tri-county area that provides labor and delivery services.

“Working in a rural community hospital, those are my friends and family that I’m caring for,” said Selley.

Why you should care:

Orlando Health Bayfront in St. Petersburg uses a maternal telehealth program to help reach rural maternity patients. 

Rush said federal legislation helped designate money at the state level for maternal telehealth coverage throughout the state.

“They started running some pilot programs on how we could reach this population, particularly in the rural areas in those healthcare deserts where a lot of moms do look for delivering hospitals,” said Rush.

She said Orlando Health Bayfront expanded the program from Pinellas and Pasco counties into Hardee, Highlands, Manatee, and Polk counties.

“There’s lot of options that we’re looking at for future expansion to go out to where they are rather than an outreach, rather than them come to wherever the provider is sitting,” said Rush.

Dig deeper:

A new Orlando Health hospital is going up in Wesley Chapel, but it won’t include maternity care.

But in those cases, doctors said guidelines for helping pregnant patients, especially high-risk ones, are critical.

“They may not be able to take care of all of those steps, but we’re working throughout the state to help other hospitals and other providers in some of these maternity deserts recognize it and know where they can send a patient,” said Cain.

READ: Hillsborough County health care plan sees surge after federal subsidies expire

Maternity deserts may not go away, but Tampa Bay area doctors said they’re committed to keeping the existing care in place.

“Those of us that are in these communities are holding on to our labor and deliver units as tightly as we can because we know the value of what that provides to the community. It really is about one patient, right, that it makes a difference for,” said Selley.

Florida rapper Lil Poppa has died, Georgia authorities said. He was 25.

The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed the rapper’s death in a statement to NBC News, but did not provide further details. The cause and manner of death are under investigation, the office said.

The Jacksonville rapper, whose real name is Janarious Wheeler, was signed to rapper Yo Gotti’s Collective Music Group and released songs including “Love & War,” “Mind Over Matter,” and “HAPPY TEARS.” His most recent studio album was last year’s “Almost Normal Again.”

Days before his death, he released the new track “Out of Town Bae.”

A representative for Wheeler did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Music producer Scotty OTH told NBC affiliate WTLV of Jacksonville that Wheeler was a “very hard worker.”

“I ain’t never seen nobody outwork Poppa. Poppa is the last man standing in the studio,” he said.

The pair made their first song together over five years ago.

“I was making beats, then he was making music, and 2019, 2018, we ended up making our first track together, but outside it’s deeper than music,” he said. “That was family to me. We called each other cousins.”

Photographer Terrence Tyson, who said he documented Lil Poppa’s rise to fame, told WTLV that the death has stunned the Jacksonville community.

“I know how myself and a lot of other people, how hard we went for him to get where he needed to be. It was a shock and it was a big loss,” Tyson said.

“When he made it, it felt like everyone made it,” Tyson said. “He was a star.”

A new bill has been introduced in the Florida Senate to allow high school coaches to spend personal funds on their team.

“We treat them just like our kids, our sons,” said Antonio Seay.

Seay has been an assistant football coach at Miami-Northwestern Senior High School for the last four years. He worked alongside former head coach Teddy Bridgewater, who was suspended last year for impermissible benefits.

“It brought camaraderie, the brotherhood with everyone,” Seay said. “Kids came together, worked together, built a bond, and became champions at that point.”

Now there’s a bill aimed at reversing the rule that led to Bridgewater’s suspension.

Senate Bill 178 would allow high school head coaches from any sport to spend up to $15,000 in personal funds per team, per year, to pay for items like food, transportation, and recovery services in “good faith.”

This would change the current Florida High School Athletic Association bylaws that call those actions “impermissible benefits.”

“Teddy owned up to this outright, saying he provided food, Ubers, and recovery services to his players throughout the season,” said Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, as he presented the bill to the Florida Senate.

Jones sponsored the bill after there was an outpouring of support following Bridgewater’s suspension. He said he is casually calling it the Teddy Bridgewater Act.

“They are sometimes the parents for some of these young people, and sometimes these are the one individual or individuals that a lot of these student athletes trust,” Jones told CBS News Miami. “They should be able to help those student athletes with things like getting home safely after practice they should be able to help them with food if they have not eaten. Those are good faith tactics that I believe should be allowed.”

Jones said that, according to the bill, each coach must report the funds spent to the FHSAA to determine if the spending was in “good faith.”

The funds can not be used for recruiting.

“What I can’t deal with is a child walking home from school after practice at 8 p.m., and something happens to them,” Jones said.

Saey said he only has one concern.

“People taking advantage of the bill, to try to bring success with recruiting, not the good of it, to make sure that you can provide for the kids to perform on the field and in life,” Seay said.

The bill will be on the floor again on Thursday.

If passed and signed off by the governor, the legislation would take effect on July 1st.