Rural maternity care and health policy: Parents' experiences

<p><strong>Objective</strong>: To explore rural residents' experiences of access to maternity care with consideration of the policy context.</p> <p><strong>Design</strong>: This paper describes findings from focus groups with parents which formed part of case study data from a larger study.</p> <p><strong>Setting</strong>: Four north Queensland rural towns.</p> <p><strong>Participants</strong>: Thirty-three parents living in one of the four rural towns.</p> <p><strong>Main outcome measures</strong>: Identifying prevalent themes in case studies regarding rural parents' expectations and experiences in accessing maternity care.</p> <p><strong>Results</strong>: Parents desired a local, safe and consistent maternity service. Removing or downgrading rural services introduced new barriers to care for rural residents: (i) increased financial costs; (ii) family issues; and (iii) safety concerns.</p> <p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: Although concerns about rural residents' health status and health care access have received significant policy attention for over a decade, many of the problems which prompted these policy initiatives remain today. Current policy approaches should be re-evaluated in order to improve rural Australians' access to vital health services such as maternity care.</p>