Date of Award

Fall 2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Public Administration (DPA)

Department

Public Policy and Administration

Committee Chairperson

Michelle Wade, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Allison Turner, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Amanda Olejarski, Ph.D.

Abstract

Maternal health has become an increasingly important public health issue in the United States due to the country elevated levels of maternal mortality rates. As the patient experience which entails a wide variety of interactions between patients and the healthcare system becomes more associated with patient outcomes, it is important to explore how the patient experience is affecting maternal health outcomes. This study consists of in-depth interviews to investigate their experience receiving maternal healthcare in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The study aims to figure out what are black women experiences while receiving maternal healthcare in southeastern Pennsylvania and are those experiences negative. Understanding how their negative experiences affected their health outcome and how often people have negative experiences and negative outcomes. The study showed that half of the participants had positive experiences while the other half did not. The half with negative experiences faced racial comments and microaggressions. Within the sample of participants that had negative experiences, 3/5 of those participants had negative health outcomes. The need for the maternal experience to be explored needs to be expanded so that the disparities with maternal mortality statistics can be explained and eradicated.

Download

Share

COinS