POLICY BRIEF State Variability in Access to Hospital-Based Obstetric Services in Rural US
Counties Page 1 POLICY BRIEF April 2017 Purpose The purpose of this policy brief is to …

POLICY BRIEF Closure of Hospital Obstetric Services Disproportionately Affects Less-Populated
Rural Counties Page 1 POLICY BRIEF April 2017 Purpose The purpose of this study was to …

Recent closures of rural obstetric units and entire hospitals have exacerbated concerns
about access to care for more than eighteen million women of reproductive age living in …

Importance Hospital-based obstetric services have decreased in rural US counties, but
whether this has been associated with changes in birth location and outcomes is unknown …

Objectives. To describe characteristics of rural hospitals in the United States by whether they
provide labor and delivery (obstetric) care for pregnant patients. Methods. We used the 2017 …

Purpose Health services research has used a range of methods for measuring whether
hospitals have an obstetric unit. Variation across methods may lead to inaccurate or …

Purpose Rural communities in the United States have higher rates of both infant and
maternal mortality, as well as serious pregnancy complications; this may be exacerbated by …

Childbirth is the most common reason for hospitalization in the US1. An estimated half a
million rural women give birth in US hospitals each year. The majority of rural women give …

This study used logistic regression to identify differences in community-level characteristics
of small, rural hospitals that provided obstetrical services compared to those that did not. The …

Abstract Purpose Closure of rural Labor & Delivery (L&D) units can impact timely access to
hospital‐based obstetrical care. Iowa has lost over a quarter of its L&D units in the previous …