Rural women who got C-sections more likely to be prescribed opioids at home, study finds

A study of more than 540,000 cesarean births by health-data firm Truveta found rural mothers were about 10 percentage points more likely than urban mothers to receive opioid prescriptions at hospital discharge, despite similar pain-medication use while still in the hospital. Rural patients also received more acetaminophen and NSAID prescriptions.

The researchers, examining data from 2018 through mid-2026, flagged the gap as notable given the CDC's finding that substance use disorder contributes to more than one in five pregnancy-related deaths. Unadjusted data also showed somewhat higher opioid prescribing among Black women and those with documented substance use histories, though the team did not test whether that difference was statistically significant.

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