Health: new aid for pregnant women too far from maternity wards

This is a novelty that should reassure pregnant women. Expectant mothers who live too far from the maternity ward will be able to benefit from free accommodation before giving birth. A decree published in the Official Journal on April 14, acts in effect to cover temporary non-medical accommodation – or hospital hotel – for pregnant women whose home is too far from the maternity ward. If the travel time exceeds 45 minutes by motorized transport, then you are eligible for this boost. The pregnant women concerned will be able to benefit from five consecutive nights covered by health insurance, the days preceding the estimated date of delivery.

The text lays down a general rule, but it is possible to adapt it to your particular situation with the approval of your doctor. For example, if the baby is born after the end of the pregnancy, the decree provides, “on medical necessity”, for an extension of the duration of the accommodation “until the actual date of delivery”. In the case of a pathological pregnancy, the pregnant woman can, on “medical assessment”, benefit from five nights at “any period of pregnancy”. Depending on your case, health insurance can therefore reimburse you for accommodation at a different period from the days preceding the estimated date of delivery.

Pregnant women away from their maternity ward can also request that the journeys between their home and the place of temporary accommodation or the gynecology-obstetrics unit be made by an approved transport company or an approved taxi. They will then be covered by health insurance. Travel for medical examinations planned as part of pregnancy monitoring during the eighth and ninth months are also covered by Social Security.

221 maternities closed between 2000 and 2017

This decree in fact applies a measure included in the Social Security financing law for 2020 according to which approximately 60,000 women live more than 45 minutes from a maternity hospital. And for good reason, according to a study of the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics, published last July, between 2000 and 2017, no less than 221 maternity hospitals closed their doors. France had 717 maternities in 2000 against… 496 seventeen years later.

The difficulties of access to these establishments vary greatly from one department to another. Thus in Haute-Corse, in 2017, 32% of women aged 15 to 44 lived more than 45 minutes from a maternity hospital. This proportion is zero in Paris and its neighboring departments.

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