IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v35y2026i2p360-376.html

Maternity Ward Closures and Infant Health Outcomes, Maternal Health Outcomes, and Birth Procedures

Author

Listed:
  • Astrid de Linde
  • Jostein Grytten
  • Irene Skau
  • Jonas Minet Kinge

Abstract

We analyze the short‐ and long‐term impacts of maternity ward closures using registry data on every delivery in Norway from 1981 through 2019. Among those directly experiencing a closure, we find a small decline in 5‐minute Apgar score and increased probability of birth outside institution. Since this drop in Apgar is not reflected across the other indicators, we hypothesize it reflects different institutional scoring standards as opposed to a health effect. For long‐term outcomes, we find treatment as an infant increases the likelihood of beginning high school by 1 percentage point, but has no effect on graduating. Furthermore, for infants assigned female at birth, we find early‐life treatment does not change the probability of giving birth as an adult or experiencing negative health conditions during pregnancy. We hypothesize robust prenatal care and health and social services may mitigate the impact of closures and thus account for a limited treatment effect.

Suggested Citation

  • Astrid de Linde & Jostein Grytten & Irene Skau & Jonas Minet Kinge, 2026. "Maternity Ward Closures and Infant Health Outcomes, Maternal Health Outcomes, and Birth Procedures," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(2), pages 360-376, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:35:y:2026:i:2:p:360-376
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.70053
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.70053
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.70053?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:35:y:2026:i:2:p:360-376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.