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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

34(1):10-11

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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