title: Identifying health disparities and social inequities affecting childbearing women and infants.
abstract: This article presents health disparities and social inequities that may underlie adverse outcomes for childbearing women and infants in the United States. It also presents Internet-accessible databases that nurses can use to assess maternal and infant health disparities at a national or state level. Such assessments are basic to planning programs to address gaps in health care and advocating for practice and policy changes to improve the health care of childbearing women and infants.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing, Austin, TX 78701-1499, USA. lwalker@mail.nur.utexas.edu
authors.forename: Lorraine O
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Walker
authors.forename: Lorie W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Chesnut
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality / Q000208:ethnology; D020407:Internet; D008428:Maternal Mortality / Q000208:ethnology; D016389:Maternal-Child Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D020380:Needs Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000208:ethnology; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology