Based on my understanding, the article “For Serena Williams, Childbirth Was a Harrowing Ordeal. She’s Not Alone” by Salam suggests that social and economic disparities lower health standards, making this an important area of discussion. On analyzing the article, it is evident that the patient is wealthy and influential. However, this does not deter the practitioners from offering substandard care services to her. The scenario makes me figure out that apart from wealth, other factors contribute to global healthcare imbalances. Such factors as race and culture are used to define global minority groups. Therefore, in this case, the patient’s race may have alienated her from receiving proper care, justifying the mentioned issues, such as culture and individual financial ability as factors leading to substandard medical services among many women.
From my understanding, eradicating healthcare imbalances requires that practitioners timely respond to emergencies regardless of an individual’s sex and race, among other factors. However, exploring the provided article shows that many practitioners ignore such expectations. In my opinion, medical personnel must be empathetic, sympathetic, respectful for the patient and communicate effectively to improve patient outcomes. However, this is not the case in the article, where the patient was predisposited to danger and extra charges due to the other medical procedures she received.
Conclusively, it is true that women in prenatal care face the danger of experiencing low quality services, increasing morbidity and maternal care mortality rates. On the other hand, it is crucial to note that such issues may occur due to other underlying health conditions, as expounded in the article. Therefore, healthcare providers must ensure safety by paying attention to a patient’s health history and maintaining equality in facilities regardless of race and financial capabilities of such individuals, improving their life quality.
Reference
Salam, Maya. “For Serena Williams, Childbirth Was a Harrowing Ordeal. She’s Not Alone.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia, 2018. Web.