A Comprehensive Community Toolkit
The Action Plan for Sustainable Rural Maternity Care Toolkit covers the steps needed to introduce maternity services in rural communities without local services. It is based on the aggregate understandings of our work in 23 rural communities across British Columbia over the past 7 years and additional evidence from the literature. Additional steps are included in the toolkit for Aboriginal communities. The Toolkit has 4 phases:
- Developing an Action Plan for Local Maternity Services; (which coincides with)
- Strengthening the current model of no local delivery services;
- Implementation of services; and,
- Sustaining local maternity services.
This 4-phase approach is predicated on a modeling tool, the Rural Birth Index (RBI). The RBI is designed to help with planning for services rationally by determining the appropriate level of services for a community based on population and isolation. For more information about the RBI, please visit the project page.