At the end of April, the government announced the possibility for pregnant women living more than forty-five minutes from a maternity hospital to benefit from non-medical accommodation as they approach the end of their pregnancy. This announcement is part of the “maternity commitment” promised in 2019 by Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Health, at the time.
the decree provides accommodation near a maternity ward, for a period of five consecutive nights preceding the estimated date of delivery for so-called pregnancies “physiological”, that is to say presenting no pathology. For pregnancies considered ” at risk “, this benefit can be extended on medical advice, all being covered by Medicare. The pregnant woman can also benefit from transportation from her home to the accommodation.
“Securing the antenatal period”
The system must, among other things, respond to the geographical remoteness of women from maternity wards in certain territories. In 2021, a study by the Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics Department revealed that the proportion of women of childbearing age living more than forty-five minutes from a maternity hospital had increased by 40% between 2000 and 2017, even if they remain in the minority (between 1% and 2%). Over the past twenty years, 221 maternity hospitals out of 717 have closed and there are strong disparities in the territory.
But responding to the problem of remoteness is not the only objective of this new commitment, launched a year ago in the pilot department of Jura. “It must also allow better management of pathological pregnancies, all the patients concerned not living less than forty-five minutes from a technical platform, explains Valérie Thomassin, perinatal medical advisor at the Burgundy-Franche-Comté regional health agency (ARS). Until now, these patients occupied hospital beds, even when they no longer needed them. A situation which, moreover, isolates them from their family and friendly environment. With this new possibility, they can be accommodated with their spouse, their children. »
According to Mme Thomassin, this decree is above all a way of “secure the antenatal period” for women and to make it ” More comfortable ” : “We secure this question of the risk of unexpected childbirth and we give ourselves the means to have a real parental room at a historic moment for the family. »
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