Semin Perinatol. 2021 Mar 21:151409. doi: 10.1016/j.semperi.2021.151409. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
Variations in infant and neonatal mortality continue to persist in the United States and in other countries based on both socio-demographic characteristics, such as race and ethnicity, and geographic location. One potential driver of these differences is variations in access to risk-appropriate delivery care. The purpose of this article is to present the importance of delivery hospitals on neonatal outcomes, discuss variation in access to these hospitals for high-risk infants and their mothers, and to provide insight into drivers for differences in access to high-quality perinatal care using the available literature. This review also illustrates the lack of information on a number of topics that are crucial to the development of evidence-based interventions to improve access to appropriate delivery hospital services and thus optimize the outcomes of high-risk mothers and their newborns.
PMID:33931237 | DOI:10.1016/j.semperi.2021.151409