Texas among worst states to have a baby, study finds

For all its lawmakers’ talk about protecting children and the unborn, Texas ranks in the bottom half in a new study on the best states in which to have a baby. Indeed, the Lone Star State ranked as the 37th best for soon-to-be mothers in the new analysis by finance site WalletHub.

WalletHub ranked the 50 states and the District of Columbia using 31 key metrics, including the cost of having a child — $2,600 on average for those with insurance and nearly $15,000 for those without. Researchers also took into effect factors such as health care accessibility and childcare centers per capita.

Texas ranks below average across eight metrics, even coming in second to last on childcare centers per capita.

The state’s poor showing on childcare centers comes after lawmakers during the recent session skipped on the chance to allocate $2.3 billion to childcare facilities — a move many expect will lead an increase in daycare center closures. Experts argue that the money could have helped bail out the industry as it struggles to recover from the prolonged COVID-19 crisis.

Texas also ranked below average in its number of pediatricians and family medicine physicians per capita, coming in at No. 27. What’s more, it scored poorly on metrics such as the number of children with low-birth weight and the number of OB GYNs per capita.

Those poor showings follow a recent study by the March of Dimes, which highlighted the state’s many so-called maternal care “deserts,” or counties in which standard maternal care is unavailable or difficult to access.

Nearly 47% of the state’s 254 counties lack access to maternal care, and some 4% of all births in Texas happening in those deserts. Furthermore, that study warns that hospital closures, which ticked up 1% from 2019 to 2020, could worsen the problem.

The best state to have a baby is Massachusetts, with Mississippi coming in dead last, according to WalletHub.

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This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 8, 2023.