Poor access to obstetric and neonatal care in low-income areas

A research team led by the Yale School of Public Health has found that many pregnant women in low-income areas have to travel farther than their peers to reach the nearest hospitals to deliver their babies-and the gap in accessible health care appears to be growing. The findings are published in the Journal of Perinatology . "This study uncovered that travel distances to a hospital obstetric unit for many economically disadvantaged women has actually increased over a 10-year period and that the need for hospital-based obstetric care is even more acute," said lead author Peiyin Hung, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate at Yale School of Public Health. "Our findings suggest that residential proximity to hospital obstetrics and neonatal care settings needs to be taken into account as travel burden might place these vulnerable women and their babies at risk."  Travel distances to a hospital obstetric unit for many economically disadvantaged women has actually increased over a 10-year period. Pei-Yin Hung A travel distance of more than 30 miles to reach hospital obstetric care is considered a geographic barrier to specialized childbirth services and is a factor in unhealthy birth outcomes, Hung said. Since recent hospital obstetric unit closures studies have found that rural hospitals are fighting with low-birth volume, staffing and financial distress, Hung and her co-authors were interested in quantifying how far rural and urban women had to travel to get the closest hospital obstetric units.