Social Impacts of Closure of Maternity Services in Rural Areas

Childbirth is both a universal biological and a uniquely individual event. The physical process of childbirth is similar for everyone, but each birth experience is not. Women can have a less positive birth experience when women’s needs in maternity care are not meet. In Australia rural communities have experienced an on-going loss of maternity services for more than a decade forcing thousands of rural and remote women to leave their community and familiar places to distant centres to give birth. As place is not just referred to a geographic boundary, people attach meaning and emotion to place. The loss of obstetric services in rural areas has had major social impacts on rural communities ranging from poorer outcomes for mothers and babies, family disruption and costs associated with travel and accommodation, the physical and other impacts of long travel, the risks including roadside birthing and the sustainability of rural communities.