Prenatal Care Barriers in the United States According to Dijk, Anderko, and Stetzer (2010), the United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation in the world, however they only rank 28th in infant mortality among 32 industrialized nations. Improved maternal health and reduced infant mortality can result from a variety of different interventions, and the topic of concern for this discussion is prenatal care. The early use of prenatal care can result in better birth outcomes as well as reduce maternal complications during labor and delivery, however, there are variations in initiating care and quality throughout the United States (Noonan, Corman, Schwartz-Soicher, & Reichman, 2013). Better birth outcomes such as low birthweight,
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In combination with spending almost 90 hours at my clinical site in labor and delivery, the family birthing center, and the postpartum unit, it was evident that there are a multitude of complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and infant prematurity that can occur. I strongly believe that many adverse effects and outcomes are preventable through initiating prenatal visits and using health promotion and education, and there are various interventions available to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Because of these reasons, women should have access to quality prenatal care, however, research shows that there are multiple barriers preventing women from visiting prenatal clinics and providers early on in pregnancy. An important question to ask is if prenatal care can help prevent adverse outcomes and decrease infant mortality rates, why are women not seeking prenatal care? Secondly, what modifications in the clinical setting and in our current health policies can be made to decrease these …show more content…
Maternal barriers are defined as: language barriers, lack of transportation, lack of insurance, poor motivation, lack of financial resources, and needs of other children/lack of childcare. Structural barriers are defined as: factors related to the organization and financing of the healthcare delivery system; this includes problems with the prenatal clinics’ location, hours, and appointment availability, insufficient number of clinics, long waiting times for and at appointments, and reluctance of some providers to accept Medicaid. In a study done by Omar and Bauer (1998), it was found that the economic barrier to prenatal care was most frequently identified by women and providers. Most women were
In combination with spending almost 90 hours at my clinical site in labor and delivery, the family birthing center, and the postpartum unit, it was evident that there are a multitude of complications such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and infant prematurity that can occur. I strongly believe that many adverse effects and outcomes are preventable through initiating prenatal visits and using health promotion and education, and there are various interventions available to ensure a healthy pregnancy. Because of these reasons, women should have access to quality prenatal care, however, research shows that there are multiple barriers preventing women from visiting prenatal clinics and providers early on in pregnancy. An important question to ask is if prenatal care can help prevent adverse outcomes and decrease infant mortality rates, why are women not seeking prenatal care? Secondly, what modifications in the clinical setting and in our current health policies can be made to decrease these …show more content…
Maternal barriers are defined as: language barriers, lack of transportation, lack of insurance, poor motivation, lack of financial resources, and needs of other children/lack of childcare. Structural barriers are defined as: factors related to the organization and financing of the healthcare delivery system; this includes problems with the prenatal clinics’ location, hours, and appointment availability, insufficient number of clinics, long waiting times for and at appointments, and reluctance of some providers to accept Medicaid. In a study done by Omar and Bauer (1998), it was found that the economic barrier to prenatal care was most frequently identified by women and providers. Most women were