Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Nov:24:225-33.
doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2013.09.006. Epub 2013 Oct 3.

Perinatal health inequalities and accessibility of maternity services in a rural French region: closing maternity units in Burgundy

Evelyne Combier  1 , Hélène Charreire, Marc Le Vaillant, Francis Michaut, Cyril Ferdynus, Jeanne-Marie Amat-Roze, Jean-Bernard Gouyon, Catherine Quantin, Jennifer Zeitlin
Affiliations

Perinatal health inequalities and accessibility of maternity services in a rural French region: closing maternity units in Burgundy

Evelyne Combier et al. Health Place. 2013 Nov.

Abstract

Maternity unit closures in France have increased travel time for pregnant women in rural areas. We assessed the impact of travel time to the closest unit on perinatal outcomes and care in Burgundy using multilevel analyses of data on deliveries from 2000 to 2009. A travel time of 30min or more increased risks of fetal heart rate anomalies, meconium-stained amniotic fluid, out-of-hospital births, and pregnancy hospitalizations; a positive but non-significant gradient existed between travel time and perinatal mortality. The effects of long travel distances on perinatal outcomes and care should be factored into closure decisions.

Keywords: Accessibility; Maternity services; Perinatal health; Rural region; Travel time.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources