Women's Health Providers

Women's Health Providers in United States

United States

Women’s health providers — such as obstetricians, gynecologists and midwives — specialize in reproductive topics such as pregnancy, contraception (birth control) and menopause, as well as long-term health and wellness. They provide important preventive health services for women of reproductive age, including:

• Breast and cervical cancer screening.
• Contraception counseling.
• Testing and screening for HIV and sexually transmitted infections.
• Diabetes testing.

Moreover, women’s health providers provide critical care throughout pregnancy. Prenatal care involving frequent medical visits, lifestyle changes and monitoring over time and a meaningful relationship with a consistent provider is associated with higher quality of care. A sense of trust in the relationship leads to more open communication, more informed women and more informed providers. Furthermore, patients are more likely to follow advice from someone they trust.

The number of women’s health providers is higher in urban areas compared with rural areas.

Strategies to increase access to, and use of, women’s health providers include: 

• Expanding the scope of practice for nurse midwives. 
• Expanding and extending insurance coverage for maternal care, especially in rural areas. 
• Implementing culturally tailored programs to support families, such as Family Spirit and the American Indian Infant Health Initiative, which use a community-based home-visitation approach to address maternal health disparities among American Indian/Alaska populations.

Healthy People 2030 does not specifically address increasing the number of women’s health providers, but they have several goals related to cancer screening, family planning, pregnancy and childbirth. Their women’s health objectives include:

• Increasing the proportion of pregnant women who receive early and adequate prenatal care.
• Reducing preterm births. 

The White House has a goal to address the shortage of maternal health providers by expanding scope of practice and improving insurance coverage of doulas, licensed midwives and community health workers, as well as increasing the number of physicians in underserved communities.

“ACOG Committee Opinion No. 586: Health Disparities in Rural Women.” Obstetrics & Gynecology 123, no. 2 (February 2014): 384–88. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.AOG.0000443278.06393.d6.

“Improving Access to Maternal Health Care in Rural Communities.” Issue Brief. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2019. https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/OMH/equity-initiatives/rural-health/09032019-Maternal-Health-Care-in-Rural-Communities.pdf.

Long, Michelle, Brittni Frederiksen, Usha Ranji, and 2021. “Women’s Health Care Utilization and Costs: Findings from the 2020 KFF Women’s Health Survey.” Issue Brief. KFF, April 21, 2021. https://www.kff.org/womens-health-policy/issue-brief/womens-health-care-utilization-and-costs-findings-from-the-2020-kff-womens-health-survey/.

Sword, Wendy, Maureen I Heaman, Sandy Brooks, Suzanne Tough, Patricia A Janssen, David Young, Dawn Kingston, Michael E Helewa, Noori Akhtar-Danesh, and Eileen Hutton. “Women’s and Care Providers’ Perspectives of Quality Prenatal Care: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.” BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 12, no. 1 (December 2012): 29. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2393-12-29.

Tikkanen, Roosa, Munira Z. Gunja, Molly FitzGerald, and Laurie Zephyrin. “Maternal Mortality and Maternity Care in the United States Compared to 10 Other Developed Countries.” The Commonwealth Fund, November 18, 2020. https://doi.org/10.26099/411v-9255.

“White House Blueprint for Addressing the Maternal Health Crisis.” Washington, D.C.: The White House, June 2022. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Maternal-Health-Blueprint.pdf.