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Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Maternal health workforce

Project SOAR: Simulation-Based Training to Support Emergent Obstetric Capacity & Care in Rural Hospitals
Webinar highlighting the creation of a Texas based academic-rural health partnership providing training for rural nurses in emergent obstetric care. Discusses maternal care statistics in rural Texas and the benefits of community-based participatory research. Transcript available by clicking the three dots under the video.
Date: 01/2023
Type: Video/Multimedia
Sponsoring organization: University of Texas at Arlington Center for Rural Health and Nursing
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Understanding and Overcoming Barriers to Rural Obstetric Training for Family Physicians
Reports findings from a mixed-methods study on the availability and characteristics of obstetric (OB) training in rural family medicine residency programs, as well as the barriers to and facilitators of rural OB training.
Author(s): Erin Fredrickson, David V. Evans, Sara Woolcock, et al.
Citation: Family Medicine, 55(6), 381-388
Date: 2023
Type: Document
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Maternal Mortality in Indiana (2022): Contributing Factors and Policy Recommendations
Discusses causes of maternal mortality and related data in Indiana and the U.S. at large. Includes information on disparities with a focus on rural areas, race/ethnicity, and access to maternal health services. Provides county-level map of Indiana showing ratio of county population to obstetrician-gynecologists (OB/GYN) specialists.
Author(s): Nidhi Arun, Vatsla Sharma, Elizabeth Thuranira
Date: 12/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Indiana University Public Policy Institute
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Rural Health Research Recap: Maternal Health Disparities: An Intersection of Race and Rurality
Summarizes recent research from Rural Health Research Centers examining the loss of hospital-based obstetric services and racial/ethnic disparities surrounding maternal and infant health. Features statistics on percent of counties which lost obstetric services from 2014-2018 with breakdowns by 4 levels of population density, annual births at hospitals providing obstetric services from 2010-2018 by rurality, percent of rural counties without obstetric services in 2019, and rates of preterm birth by race/ethnicity and rurality from 2012-2018.
Author(s): Per Ostmo, Jessica Rosencrans
Date: 10/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Research Gateway
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Maternal Health: Availability of Hospital-Based Obstetric Care in Rural Areas
Explores the availability of hospital-based obstetric services in rural areas. Summarizes stakeholder perspectives on the factors affecting the availability of these services and on the efforts federal agencies, states, and others could take to increase the access to obstetric care. Highlights six programs identified by researchers and provider associations as effective at increasing obstetric care in rural areas.
Additional links: Full Report
Date: 10/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Government Accountability Office
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Nowhere to Go: Maternity Care Deserts Across the U.S. 2022
Explores maternal healthcare access and provides county-level U.S. maps that show maternity care deserts, hospitals and birth centers that offer obstetric (OB) care, distribution of OB providers, percentage of women without health insurance, percentage of births covered by Medicaid, and more. Includes rural versus urban characteristics of maternity care deserts as well as access and policy discussions specific to rural areas.
Date: 10/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: March of Dimes
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Family Physicians and Maternal Health in Rural America, with Julie Wood and Zita Magloire
An episode of the Exploring Rural Health podcast featuring Dr. Julie Wood, senior vice president of research, science and health of the public at the American Academy of Family Physicians, and Dr. Zita Magloire, a practicing family physician in Cairo, Georgia. Focuses on rural family physicians and the challenges and joys of providing maternal care in rural areas.
Date: 10/2022
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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Obstetricians, Gynecologists, and Maternal Health in Rural America, with Anne Banfield
An episode of the Exploring Rural Health podcast featuring Dr. Anne Banfield, physician administrative and clinical director at Women's Health at Leonardtown in Maryland, and member of the foundation board of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Discusses the rural OBGYN workforce and the challenges of providing maternal care in rural areas.
Date: 09/2022
Type: Audio
Sponsoring organization: Rural Health Information Hub
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State of the Maternal Health Workforce Brief
Provides data on the maternal health workforce in the U.S., such as total number currently in the workforce, projections of the workforce through 2030, and various demographic information, including worker location according to large metro, medium metro, small metro, micropolitan, or noncore area.
Date: 08/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organizations: Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
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Georgia Counties without Primary Care/Core Practitioners: Based on 2019-2020 Licensure Renewal Data and New Licensees
County-level Georgia maps showing counties without any physicians, and without physicians specializing in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, general surgery, psychiatry, and emergency medicine. Features statistics on numbers of these physicians with breakdowns by county.
Date: 05/2022
Type: Document
Sponsoring organization: Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce
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