There are some shocking facts about health care access for women in the United States.

mother healthWe may think that lack of proper health care access, particularly maternal health care access would be something restricted to the third world, but there is a dismal gap between actual requirements of women and the situation on the ground.

Improper or inadequate access is due to several different factors:

  • Discrimination plays a part in the kind of health care access a woman gets.
  • Often it is language barriers that either prevents women from communicating with their care givers or the other way around.
  • There are bureaucratic hurdles that women’s health care faces.
  • The system suffers from a shortage of health care providers.
  • There is also a lack of standardized national protocols to prevent or take appropriate action in the case of life-threatening complications.
  • Rural women, women of color, women from the inner cities (economically underprivileged) and those that do not speak the language are disproportionately impacted by these inequities in the health care system.

There is a need for better coordination as well as accountability required at the national level for women’s maternal health.

Source: amnestyusa