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The Essential Role of Family Physicians in Providing Cesarean Sections in Rural Communities

Author(s)

Tong, Sebastian T, Eden, Aimee R, Morgan, Zachary J, Bazemore, Andrew W, and Peterson, Lars E

Topic(s)

What Family Physicians Do

Keyword(s)

Continuing Certification Questionnaire, JABFM Policy Brief, Maternity Care, Population Health, Rural, Shortage Areas, and Visiting Scholar/Fellow

Volume

Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine

Source

Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine

Of family physicians who perform cesarean sections, more than half do so in rural communities and 38.6% provide cesarean sections in counties without any obstetrician/gynecologists. As policymakers in the United States struggle with a widening landscape of ‘obstetrical deserts,’ efforts to adequately train a family physician workforce prepared to provide cesarean sections could help maintain access to local obstetric services in rural communities and reduce perinatal morbidity and mortality.

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