Maternal health

Current Projects

• Access to and Use of Midwifery Care for Rural Residents
  Rural obstetric unit closures and health care workforce shortages limit access to care for pregnant rural residents. Our goal is to describe the midwifery workforce in rural communities and at rural hospitals that provide obstetric care, and to assess rural-urban differences in use of midwifery care at the time of childbirth.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Nurses and nurse practitioners, Women, Workforce
  
• Challenges, Successes, and Sustainability of the 2019 Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS) Programs
  This mixed-methods study aims to understand awardees' experiences in building and maintaining cohesive networks for Rural Maternity and Obstetrics Management Strategies (RMOMS).
  Research center: Rural and Minority Health Research Center
  Topics: Health disparities and health equity, Health services, Healthcare access, Maternal health, Minority health, Networking and collaboration, Telehealth, Women
  
• Characteristics of Buprenorphine Therapy Among Commercially-Insured Pregnant and Postpartum Women
  This project will analyze claims from a national commercial insurance database to characterize buprenorphine therapy initiation persistence and adherence among pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder (OUD) and assess differences in buprenorphine OUD treatment characteristics among rural and urban pregnant/postpartum women.
  Research center: Rural Health Equity Research Center
  Topics: Health disparities and health equity, Healthcare access, Maternal health, Substance use and treatment
  
• Identifying High-Need Counties for Resource Planning
  The primary aim of this project is to use data examining health care infrastructure, chronic disease prevalence, and the socioeconomic environment to create a metric for classifying rural counties based on needs and resources.
  Research center: Rural and Minority Health Research Center
  Topics: Chronic diseases and conditions, Diabetes, Health disparities and health equity, Healthcare access, Maternal health, Obesity, Oral health, Physicians, Poverty, Public health, Rural statistics and demographics, Social determinants of health, Uninsured and underinsured, Workforce
  
• Monitoring Obstetric Unit Closures and Measuring Closure Impacts to Support Rural Maternity Care Access
  This project will create a public health data infrastructure with annually updated information on the loss of hospital-based obstetric services, merging policy-relevant hospital and county characteristics with transportation and geographic data, and measuring trends over time in the loss of hospital-based obstetric care.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Health disparities and health equity, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Women
  
• Neonatal Care at Rural Hospitals: Describing Access, Closures and Levels of Childbirth-Related Care
  This project will describe access to childbirth-related care for families living in rural and urban communities; it will document access to neonatal care and the levels of that care, describe rural counties that have lost access to neonatal care, and identify rural counties without access to either obstetric or neonatal services.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Children and adolescents, Health disparities and health equity, Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Quality, Women
  
• Postpartum Morbidity and Mortality and Health Care Utilization in Rural vs. Urban Communities
  Using 2006-2018 data from the National Health Interview Survey linked to the National Death Index through 2019, this project will examine postpartum mortality among rural and urban residents. We will also evaluate differences in health, health care utilization, and barriers to care across rural and urban communities.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Health disparities and health equity, Healthcare access, Maternal health, Medicaid and CHIP, Mental and behavioral health, Private health insurance, Social determinants of health, Uninsured and underinsured, Women
  
• Rural Obstetric Unit Closures
  The goal of this project is to update prior research to include the latest information on the loss of hospital-based obstetric services in rural U.S. counties. This project is important because ensuring obstetric care access and reducing maternal mortality in rural and underserved areas is a key focus of national, state, and local policies.
  Research center: University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center
  Topics: Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs), Healthcare access, Hospitals and clinics, Maternal health, Women, Workforce
  
• State-Level Medicaid Bundled Payments and Rural Perinatal Care
  The impacts of state-level Medicaid bundled payment models will depend on many factors, such as maternity care facility structure, scope of services, and local patient bypassing behaviors during prenatal, intrapartum, and postpartum periods. For rural providers who often offer prenatal and postpartum care but not labor and delivery services, these bundled payments may impose additional financial and logistical challenges.
  Research center: Rural and Minority Health Research Center
  Topics: Maternal health, Medicaid and CHIP