Maternity Care Deserts
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Access to health care has for a long time been used as an indicator on the health status of communities. Healthy people 2030 defines access to health care as the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes. Providing avenues that improve access to health care services improves the overall health status of a community.
In this episode, Dr. Elizabeth Munoz, a certified Nurse-Midwife and Co-Director of the UABSON Nurse-Midwifery Pathway, talks to us about the critical role nurse midwives play in addressing this issue.
Helpful links for more information:
UAB Nurse Midwifery Pathway Page
March of Dimes Maternity Care Deserts Report
American College of Midwives Website
Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health’s “Ask the Midwife”
Joint Statement of Practice Relations Between ACNM and ACOG
Where You Live Matters
Welcome to clinical pearls. I am Tracy White. I'm here with my co-host, B.J. Hama Cooley. We have an exciting show for you today. We have a certified nurse midwife joining us to talk to us about a day in the life of a nurse midwife, access to care for women and babies and all the services that they provide which are many more than I knew about. So I'm hoping that you'll learn a lot from her today. It reminds me of a show that I heard about called called the midwife and I need to watch it. I haven't watched it yet. B.J., have you seen it? No. What are you watching these days? Well, I can tell you it's far from what called nurse midwife is. I'm watching an ethics show called Tough Boy. I would really recommend for you to watch. How about you? What are you watching? I have been watching reruns of Seinfeld. It's on Netflix and I watched it way back when it was an original show and have been watching it just it's like a 30-minute quick shows and it's very funny and about nothing. So wonderful. Well, let's just talk about this a little bit. Who's your favorite character? Oh, I think Elaine. Elaine? Elaine George. So thank you all for joining us and stay tuned for a wonderful show. Access to healthcare has for a long time been used as an indicator to the health status of communities. In Alabama, access to healthcare has been ranked as the second greatest current health concern. Healthy People 2030 defines access to healthcare as timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes. Providing avenues that provide access to healthcare services has been shown to improve the overall health status of a community. Nurse midwives play critical role in addressing the problem of access to healthcare. On this episode of Clinical Polls, we are joined by Dr. Elizabeth Munoz and nurse midwife and faculty at the U.S. School of Nursing. Dr. Munoz, thank you for joining us and please tell us a little bit about yourself. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here today. Like you said, I am Liz Munoz and I am a certified nurse midwife born and raised here in Alabama. Shout out to my hometown of Atmore and I was not always claiming to be a nurse midwife. It wasn't something that I knew I wanted to do until I was, you know, in another career. And so I come to nurse midwifery from a background of understanding what access or not having access to healthcare looks like. And so that's a piece of what I come to the profession knowing. So I loved your introduction there that you gave. But I practice in Champaign Urbana, Illinois at Carl Foundation Hospital. And I am a part-time PRN practitioner. I am a full time educator and the Assistant Program Director here at UAB School of Nursing Nurse Midwifery Pathway. So I merge practice with teaching and have been at UAB for a little over a year now. So I'm excited to be here today. Thank you for coming. Yeah, we're really excited to have you. And I didn't realize that you actually are from Alabama. So you must have moved, obviously. I went to college at Huntington College. I studied theater, which is a big jump to nurse midwifery from theater. But I went to Huntington College and moved to New York City pretty much the day after I graduated to seek out, you know, the Broadway dream. And quickly learned that New York City is not like Alabama, but in so many ways that are awesome as well. And found my way to nurse midwifery through really just having different lived experiences and having to be on my own for the first time. Found my way to thinking about access to health care, advocacy for health care, and that led me to nurse midwifery. Oh, what a fun, cool journey. So what is a nurse midwife? So a certified nurse midwife is an advanced practice nurse. Someone who has had at minimum graduate school for nursing. So
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