Assessing the Impact of Distance Traveled and Birth Volumes of Hospital Maternity Units on Newborn Outcomes: Population-Based Cohort Study.

Background: The centralization of childbirth and newborn care in large maternity units has become increasingly prevalent in Europe. While this trend offers potential benefits such as specialized care and improved outcomes, it can also lead to longer travel and waiting times, especially for women in rural areas.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the association between hospital maternity unit (HMU) volumes, road travel distance (RTD) to the hospital, and other neonatal outcomes.

Methods: We conducted a population-based cohort study including all live births in hospitals without intensive care units between 2016 and 2019 in the Lombardy region, Italy. Given the hierarchical structure of our data (births nested within hospitals), we employed log-binomial regression models with random intercepts to estimate relative risks and 95% CIs for evaluating the association between HMU volumes (≥1500 births/year) and RTD (<5 km) with the risk of being transferred and/or death after birth (primary outcome). Secondary outcomes included a low Apgar score at 5 minutes and low adherence to antenatal care (ANC). We controlled for several potential confounders including adherence to the ANC pathway for the primary and low Apgar outcomes. To explore the influence of HMU volumes on the primary outcome, we identified the fractional polynomial model that best described this relationship.

Results: Of 65,083 live births, 71% (n=45,955) occurred in low-volume hospitals (<1000 births/year), 21% (n=13,560) involved long-distance travel (>15 km), 1% (n=735) were transferred and/or died after birth, 0.5% (n=305) had a low Apgar score at 5 minutes, and 64% (n=41,317) completely adhered to ANC. The risk of transfer and/or death increased as HMU volume decreased, ranging from 1% for hospitals with 1000-1500 births/year to a 3.6-fold high risk for hospitals with <500 births/year (compared to high-volume hospitals). Travel distance did not affect the primary outcome. Neither HMU volume nor RTD were associated with low Apgar scores. Conversely, the risk of complete adherence to ANC decreased with lower HMU volumes but increased with shorter RTD. Additionally, high-volume hospitals demonstrated a decreasing trend in the frequency of the primary outcome, with transfer and/or death rates ranging from 2% to 0.5% and flattening to 0.5% in hospitals, with activity volume ≥1000 mean births/year.

Conclusions: Our findings showed an excess risk of neonatal transfer and/or death for live births in HMUs with low activity volumes without an intensive care unit. In contrast, RTD primarily affected adherence to ANC. Moreover, data suggest that 1000 births/year could be an optimal cutoff for maternity hospitals to ensure an appropriate standard of care at delivery.