The Workforce Providing Prenatal and Postpartum Care Decreases When Family Physicians Stop Attending Deliveries.

Abstract

The impact of the declining proportion of family physicians who attend deliveries on the provision of other perinatal care during pregnancy, postpartum, and neonatal periods is unclear. We found a strong association between stopping attending deliveries and stopping providing prenatal and postpartum care among family physicians, suggesting that policies which support family physicians to maintain a full scope of practice including all or some aspects of perinatal care may help alleviate shortages in the perinatal workforce and fill gaps in access to obstetric care.