How Pharmacists Can Integrate Maternity Care Services Into Routine Workflows
Natalie DiPietro Mager, PharmD, PhD, professor of pharmacy practice at Ohio Northern University, provides best tips and practices for providing maternity care.
Over 2 million women aged between 15 and 44 years in the United States live in a maternity care desert, an area with little to no obstetric services or providers.1 As the most accessible members of health care teams, pharmacists are well positioned to provide care to patients living in a maternity care desert. However, implementing these services can be difficult due to a lack of time or resources.
In an effort to determine if community pharmacists practicing in maternity care deserts or low access areas provide maternal health services and are aware that they practice in such an area, investigators of a study sent surveys to over 200 pharmacists to assess knowledge and attitudes about maternal health services. The study found only 35% of respondents recognized they are currently practicing in a maternity care desert. However, 96% said they believe community pharmacists can help optimize women’s health before and during pregnancy and 67% were interested in providing more services for women.
Drug Topics sat down with Natalie DiPietro Mager, PharmD, PhD, professor of pharmacy practice at Ohio Northern University and an author on the study, to discuss the best ways to integrate maternal health services into the routine workflow of community pharmacies to make them more accessible to pregnant individuals.
“In pharmacy we face a lot of challenges of time and staff and there is a lot of things we would like to do but are hard to implement,” DiPietro Mager said. “Really making sure that we think intentionally about how to put this in our workflow is really going to be the only way that we will be successful with it. I think of it in 2 main parts. One is establishing a new service and 1 is leveraging services you already provide.”
References
1. Duodu M, DiPietro Mager N. Provision of maternal health services among Ohio community pharmacists practicing in maternity care deserts. J Am Pharm Assoc (2003). 2024 Nov 13:102292. doi: 10.1016/j.japh.2024.102292. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39542241.
National Support for Medication Abortion Access Increased Since Dobbs Decision
January 16th 2025Support for and personal interest in expanded access to advance provision and over-the-counter medication abortion has increased significantly since the constitutional right to abortion was overturned by the Supreme Court.
