PhD Candidate, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
PhD Candidate, SPHERE Centre for Research Excellence, Melbourne, Australia.
Sex Reprod Health Matters. 2023 Dec;31(1):2213899. doi: 10.1080/26410397.2023.2213899.
Rural women in Australia are more likely than urban women to experience unintended pregnancy, yet little is known about how this issue is managed in a rural health setting. To address this gap, we conducted in-depth interviews with 20 women from rural New South Wales (NSW) about their unintended pregnancy. Participants were asked about accessing healthcare services and what was uniquely rural about their experience. The framework method was used to conduct an inductive thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from the data: (1) fragmented and opaque healthcare pathways, (2) a limited number of willing rural practitioners, (3) small town culture and community ties and (4) interrelated challenges of distance, travel and money. Our findings highlight how pervasive structural issues related to accessibility of health services intersect with small-town culture to create compounding obstacles for rural women, especially those seeking an abortion. This study is relevant to other countries with similar geographies and models of rural healthcare. Our findings point to the necessity for comprehensive reproductive health services including abortion to be an essential - not optional - part of healthcare in rural Australia.
澳大利亚农村妇女比城市妇女更有可能经历意外怀孕，但对于农村卫生环境中如何处理这一问题知之甚少。为了弥补这一空白，我们对新南威尔士州（NSW）农村地区的 20 名意外怀孕妇女进行了深入访谈。参与者被问及获取医疗保健服务的情况，以及他们的经历中哪些是农村特有的。采用框架方法对资料进行了归纳主题分析。从数据中得出了四个主题：（1）支离破碎和不透明的医疗保健途径；（2）愿意提供服务的农村医生数量有限；（3）小镇文化和社区联系；（4）距离、旅行和金钱方面的相互关联的挑战。我们的研究结果表明，与获得医疗服务相关的普遍结构性问题与小镇文化交织在一起，给农村妇女带来了复杂的障碍，尤其是那些寻求堕胎的妇女。本研究与具有类似地理和农村医疗保健模式的其他国家有关。我们的研究结果表明，全面的生殖健康服务（包括堕胎）必须成为澳大利亚农村医疗保健的一个基本组成部分，而不是可有可无的选择。
