Williamsburg County Maternal Health - SAPHL
County Health Profile

Improving maternal and infant health in Williamsburg County

Williamsburg County is no longer a maternity care desert following the opening of the MUSC Black River Medical Center. Prior to this, the December 2022 closure of its hospitals meant the county's entirely rural delivery population faced significant barriers to local care.

By working alongside local leaders, strengthening care coordination with this new facility, and expanding community-based resources, we can support better health outcomes for mothers and infants in every ZIP code.

Key maternal and infant health outcomes

Williamsburg mothers and infants experience significant health challenges, particularly among Medicaid beneficiaries and Black mothers. Targeted efforts to improve prenatal care access are essential.

Preterm birth
18%
State average: 11.6%
Low birthweight
16%
State average: 9.5%
Inadequate prenatal care
22%
State average: 16.5%
Maternal vulnerability (MVI)
92
Severely vulnerable

Access to care and key drivers

Following a period without local obstetrics care after December 2022, the opening of MUSC Black River Medical Center has restored maternity services within the county. Previously, delivery patients had to travel to regional facilities in neighboring counties. In 2024, 226 Williamsburg residents delivered, and 100% resided in rural areas (compared to 57% statewide).

What this means: Williamsburg residents now have access to a hospital offering obstetric care within the county, greatly reducing the need to travel for deliveries and perinatal emergencies. However, structural and health challenges still exist in the community.

  • Workforce shortage: The state faces a broader OBGYN shortage, with roughly a third of SC counties lacking a practicing OBGYN.
  • Demographics: High reliance on Medicaid (84% of deliveries) and 43% of the delivery population has a high school/GED education or less.
  • Health conditions: A high rate of physical health conditions (34%) among delivery patients, including hypertension and diabetes.

Understanding racial disparities and prenatal care timing

The majority of Williamsburg County’s delivery population identifies as non-Hispanic Black (63%). Structural barriers result in Black mothers in the county being nearly twice as likely as White mothers to not receive adequate prenatal care (29% compared to 17%). Those identifying as another race experienced an inadequate care rate of 50%.

Additionally, roughly 1 in 4 deliveries (26%) did not receive adequate prenatal care recently, an increasing trend from 22% in SFY 2022. This inadequate care is highly concentrated, with nearly 1 in 3 mothers lacking adequate care residing in the Hemingway and Kingstree zip codes.

Severe maternal morbidity (SMM)

Williamsburg County experiences an SMM rate of 195.3 per 10,000 deliveries.

Medicaid beneficiaries

89%

of SMM cases

Black mothers

88%

of SMM cases

Mothers with 3 or more prior births were far more likely to have inadequate prenatal care (42%) than first-time mothers (25%).

Maternal Vulnerability Index (MVI): Structural analysis

Williamsburg's overall MVI score is 92 (severely vulnerable), structurally mirroring neighboring Barnwell County. The peak severity is highly concentrated in physical environment and physical health. However, a deeper look into provider-level data reveals a unique and encouraging narrative regarding primary care access.

Williamsburg is almost a twin of Barnwell regarding specialist sparsity—OB-GYNs, midwives, and bassinets are all severely lacking. But there is a genuine bright spot: checkup access is at the floor (0.4th percentile). This means residents report receiving recent checkups at a rate matched by almost no other county nationally. Put together, Williamsburg is a county where routine primary care is successfully reaching people, even though specialist maternity infrastructure is thin. The severity here is driven less by people falling through the cracks of basic primary care, and more by the specific gap between seeing a general practitioner and seeing an OB-GYN, compounded by independent underlying environmental and physical-health burdens.

*Note: All figures below represent national percentiles (higher = more vulnerable or sparse relative to other U.S. counties), not raw rates.

MVI theme scores

  • Physical environment
    Extremely High 98
  • Physical health
    Extremely High 96
  • Socioeconomic determinants
    High 76
  • Mental health & substance use
    High 73
  • Reproductive healthcare
    High 70
  • General healthcare
    Moderately Elevated 66

Provider-level cross-check

  • Checkup access
    Excellent 0.4
  • Distance to nearest abortion facility
    Moderate 44
  • Has a personal doctor
    Moderately Poor 57
  • Hospitals within reach
    Moderately Poor 59
  • WRA uninsured
    Elevated 66
  • Certified nurse midwives / 100k WRA
    Sparse 67
  • Bassinets / 100k WRA
    Sparse 75
  • OB-GYNs / 100k WRA
    Sparse 76

Regional and state comparison data

Indicator South Carolina Williamsburg
Total deliveries 48,767 256
Infant Mortality Rate (per 1,000) 7.0 10.9
Preterm Birth (%) 11.6 15.6
Low Birth Weight (%) 9.5 16.0
Severe Maternal Morbidity (per 10k) 85.9 195.3
Inadequate Prenatal Care (%) 16.5 22.0
OB/GYN Provider Access — Access Restored
Medicaid-funded births (%) 61.4 84.0
Maternal Vulnerability Index (MVI) — 92

Selected Sources:

SC Dept. of Public Health, Infant Mortality and Selected Birth Characteristics (2023).

Institute for Families in Society, University of South Carolina (May 2025). Maternal deliveries snapshot, prenatal care adequacy and perinatal ED use in Williamsburg County.

March of Dimes, Perinatal Data Center (2025). PeriStats: South Carolina data.

Surgo Ventures: U.S. Maternal Vulnerability Index.