Learning Objective:

Explain the ethical, cultural, economic, and social issues impacting the care women receive before, during, and after pregnancy. Understand how these issues can affect the health of women of childbearing age and their fetus in the United States.

Overview of Assignment:

Write a paper exploring the ethical, economic, cultural, and social issues that women of childbearing age face today in the United States. You can pick a topic that affects women in the childbearing stage of their lives and how it impacts the care received, their lives, their health, or the health of their fetus. Or you can explain each topic individually based on different topics. Overall, research how the ethical, economic, cultural, and social issues can impact women living in the United States. 

You may use your text and the Herzing library, however, you MUST USE at least 4 scholarly sources to support your ideas, at least one for each consideration you are discussing.

Paper Requirements:

Length and Elements: The length of this essay should only be 3-4 written pages and should include:

1) Introduction with specific thesis statement (i.e. The purpose of this paper is to…Make sure to introduce the four issues you will be discussing in your paper)

2) Body of Paper: discuss each of the following considerations in separate sections with the following headings:

a. Ethical Issues—explore the ethical issues that surround and confront the childbearing women in the United States (DO NOT discuss informed consent as this is not the type of ethical issue I am looking for, look for issues related to abortion, IVF, genetic testing, ect.)

b. Economic Issues—consider the economic (money related) barriers women face, including such topics as: insurance coverage or lack thereof, WIC, money for food, Medicaid, rural access to childbearing services, etc.

c. Cultural Issues—discuss the various cultural norms that can be found among the different cultures of people in Minnesota and how these different cultural norms can impact the care received during pregnancy 

d. Social Issues—consider health disparities a person experiences due to their social environment such as women of poverty, women of color, Amish women, being an immigrant (legal or illegal), being rich, teenagers experiencing pregnancy, ect  in the United States. Relate these specific social considerations to childbearing women and how it affects maternal morbidity and mortality.

3) Conclusion: Summarize your findings; re-emphasize the thesis of the paper without simply repeating it; and do not introduce new ideas here

4) Use proper grammar, spelling, and APA 6th edition formatting including a title and reference page (the title and reference pages do not count toward the page total).