Effects of Rural Health and Maternity Care

 

Maternity care can be defined as the quality and safe health care provided to an individual concerning newborn delivery and pregnancy. It is usually based on both the physiological and psychological needs of the client, the newborn and the family members of the patient. In the United States of America, mothers living in rural areas experience tough times in accessing maternal care. This has made the process of delivery to be more difficult for the pregnant mothers living in these areas since they have to travel for miles to get into hospitals offering obstetric care.

            There are challenges which can arise when care is not provided on time, and thus, rural mothers who have to travel a long distance to get into a hospital providing the care might end up requiring intensive care (Douthit et al., 2015). Most of this patients from the rural areas might find themselves in debt due to the lengthy travels to attend an antenatal clinic to get care; this is because most of the rural counties currently do not offer obstetric services. Furthermore, the closure of most of the rural obstetric units and forced most people to travel long distances to access the services in different places.

            Although not all the rural areas of the United States of America are affected, those from low-income families have been profoundly affected by the disappearance of the obstetric care provided in the hospitals. There is also higher maternal mortality rate in mothers at rural areas compared to those in urban areas, and this can be due to the socio-economic class of those living in the rural areas and also inadequate access to maternal care (Douthit et al., 2015). It can also be due to other medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes.

            Living in rural areas is thus disadvantageous because of the inadequate access to quality obstetric care as compared to the urban areas. Hospitals in urban areas offering the care are close to the individuals, and thus it is not a significant challenge for them (Caldwell et al., 2016). Besides, most of the obstetricians and the gynecologists offering the services work in the urban areas, and only a small percentage of them work in rural areas. Most of the hospitals in the rural communities are in the risk of closure due to losses although the people living in this areas are desperately in need of care, they are more miserable and old, and also their health status is also reduced.

            Besides, individuals living in the urban areas are from higher economic class, and they can afford the services, this may be the reason most of the obstetric services are in the urban setting as opposed in the rural areas (Caldwell et al., 2016). It is also important to note that, the individuals seeking the care require the same care whether in the rural and urban setting, but the geographical access and level of poverty differentiate them.

There is also a high chance that those in rural areas are not insured and are likely use Medicaid to pay for their care which compensates doctors at a low rate when compared with the private insurance, this makes the profit for hospitals minimal and my at time operate at a loss depending on the volume of births.

The united states have set up policies that aimed at improving the health of those living in the rural areas such as policies to increase health insurance coverage for example through the support of policies that will make health insurance coverage affordable, expansion of Medicaid to extend coverage of affordable care and reducing the number of uninsured Americans (Bolin et al., 2015). There is also setting up health centers and rural health clinics to serve those using Medicaid and Medicare insurance.

            Also, the state has also implemented strategies for example financing incentives for those working in the rural areas and use of telehealth services to promote the health care providers to work in rural areas. The state also provides scholarships for health professional students to encourage them to learn and practice in rural areas. All these policies that the state has put in place are to improve the health of those people and the mothers in the rural areas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 Bolin, J. N., Bellamy, G. R., Ferdinand, A. O., Vuong, A. M., Kash, B. A., Schulze, A., & Helduser, J. W. (2015). Rural healthy people 2020: new decade, same challenges. The Journal of Rural Health, 31(3), 326-333.

Caldwell, J. T., Ford, C. L., Wallace, S. P., Wang, M. C., & Takahashi, L. M. (2016). Intersection of living in a rural versus urban area and race/ethnicity in explaining access to health care in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 106(8), 1463-1469.

Douthit, N., Kiv, S., Dwolatzky, T., & Biswas, S. (2015). Exposing some important barriers to health care access in the rural USA. Public health, 129(6), 611-620.