OB-GYN workforce shortages might worsen maternal well being disaster
A patchwork of state legal guidelines within the aftermath of a Supreme Courtroom choice overturning the best to an abortion, mixed with pandemic-related burnout and low reimbursement charges, might exacerbate an already looming nationwide scarcity of obstetrician-gynecologists, consultants say.
Medical college students say that given the Dobbs v. Jackson Ladies’s Well being Group choice overturning Roe v. Wade, they need to contemplate a panorama of quickly altering abortion laws, with litigation usually making it tough to find out what’s authorized the place.
Usually “physicians don’t go to medical college and go into the apply of medication as a result of we get pleasure from interfacing with the authorized career,” stated Katie McHugh, an Indiana-based obstetrician-gynecologist and board member with Physicians for Reproductive Well being.
The OB-GYN scarcity comes at a essential second: In 2021, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention documented positive aspects in cesarean supply, preterm start charges and low start weights, all of which might improve different well being dangers and require specialised care.
As the primary class of post-Dobbs medical college students prepares to be matched to OB-GYN residency applications on Friday, preliminary 2023 information from the American Affiliation of Medical Schools exhibits that the typical variety of functions per obstetrics and gynecology residency program fell from 663 in 2022 to 650 in 2023.
