Accessing Maternity Care in Rural Canada: There's More to the Story Than Distance to a Doctor

Abstract

Drawing upon a comparative, qualitative study of the experiences of rural women accessing maternity care in two Canadian provinces, we demonstrate that availability of services, having economic and informational resources to access the services offered, and the appropriateness of those services in terms of gender, continuity of care, confidentiality, quality of care, and cultural fit are key to an accurate understanding of health care access. We explore the implications of living rurally on each of these dimensions, thereby revealing both gaps in and solutions to rural maternity care access that narrower, proximity-based definitions miss.