Telehealth Services for Pregnant Women in Northeastern New Mexico
The United States continues to face a growing shortage of gynecologists and obstetricians. In 2018 the Association of American Medical Colleges published that half of the counties in the U.S. lack a single OBGYN. This means that pregnant women often have to face long treks for care during pregnancy and if you live in rural New Mexico, you might have to travel over 3-hours to access pregnancy-related services.
The good news is that there have been substantial improvements when it comes to telehealth services for pregnant women and ROAMS is helping to bring telehealth services to pregnant women in Northeastern New Mexico. If you are pregnant and live in Colfax, Harding, Mora, Taos, or Union county you may have access to the following telehealth services.
Learn more about Telehealth:
Telehealth OB Appointments For Pregnant Women
Regular check-ins with your OBGYN or primary care practitioner are very important during your pregnancy, but oftentimes the commute to your care provider’s office can be long and might discourage you from making it to your appointment. If you live in Northeastern New Mexico, you may even be able to set up an appointment at your local clinic and they will be able to connect you with an OBGYN at one of our other facilities so that you can reduce your commute time.
Maternal-Fetal Medicine Telehealth Appointments
If you have a high-risk pregnancy, it is likely that you will need to have regular appointments with a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist, which usually means you will need to have regular appointments to meet with your specialist throughout your pregnancy. This can mean driving to Santa Fe or Albuquerque multiple times a month. You may be able to avoid the long commute by utilizing TeleMaternal-Fetal Medicine options in your area.
Home Telehealth Kits
To help reduce the amount of travel that pregnant women in rural areas need to do in order to visit their providers, the ROAMS grant is working on making home telehealth equipment easily available in Northeastern New Mexico.