Diana Health’s services extend beyond the delivery room, with the clinic offering care for general gynecology needs, menopause and wellness, its website states. The clinic also offers mental health care services, which Buxton said can help patients that may otherwise avoid seeking out care.
“Stress and fear degrades health,” she said. “If you are dealing with a health problem … and you don’t get care, that can lead to much bigger problems downstream.”
Jen Biundo—senior director of Policy and Research for Healthy Futures of Texas, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes sexual health education and resources for young Texans—said that outcomes that occur without access to comprehensive maternal care can cause a “ripple effect” from the mother to the baby by passing along health complications.
“The components of having a healthy baby are providing high-quality maternity care, so we see things like gestational diabetes that impacts the mom but can also impact the health of the baby,” Biundo said. “These things can make it harder for the child to thrive and excel, and when we look at the long-term impact of this, we can see things like poor educational outcomes for the children.”