Mississippi Today staffers win national health reporting awards
By Mississippi Today | Originally published by Mississippi Today
“Mississippi’s C-section Problem,” a series reported by Mississippi Today’s Sophia Paffenroth and The Fuller Project’s Erica Hensley, won first place in the public health category of the 2025 Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism.
The awards, hosted by the Association of Health Care Journalists, recognize the best in health care reporting across all platforms.
The project uncovered that Mississippi performs more low-risk C-sections than any other state, with some hospitals cutting into nearly half of mothers. Low-risk C-sections are defined as those occurring in first-time moms who are at least 37 weeks pregnant and delivering a single baby in the head-down position.
The reporters also created a first-of-its-kind searchable database showing C-section rates by hospital.
“This series from Mississippi Today and The Fuller Project stood out as a clear and deeply consequential piece of public health journalism,” the judges wrote. ” … The work is comprehensive in scope, combining statewide data analysis with on-the-ground reporting and lived experiences that bring urgency and humanity to the issue. Most notably, the series does not stop at diagnosis: it highlights hospitals that are challenging the status quo, offering concrete examples of what better care can look like and grounding the reporting in potential solutions.”
Mississippi Today won two additional awards from the organization. “Behind Bars, Beyond Care,” an investigation into the health care system in Mississippi prisons reported by Michael Goldberg and Gwen Dilworth, won second place in the investigative category.
Allen Siegler’s “The Black Box,” a series revealing the broad range of ways local and state government have spent opioid settlement money, won third place in the public health category.
This article was originally published by Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Source: Original Article
