Issue: 

In South Carolina, there are issues with access to health care in rural areas, more specifically in maternal healthcare. In 2016 in South Carolina, the Department of Health and Environmental Control reported that 3 out of 5 babies born were born in a rural county. They also reported three common themes among those who did have babies in rural areas. One theme was poor provider communication, another was advising a healthy lifestyle and a lack of transportation for far distances. (SCDHEC, 2016). The biggest issue out of these three common themes was transportation. Mothers that are high risk early in pregnancy that live in a rural area may need to travel far distances to access a hospital with adequate care. One example of this is that there are no high-risk doctors in Sumter, so many mothers in this area have to travel into Columbia in order to see a high-risk doctor, but it is difficult for them to do so if they do not have access to transportation. (SCDHEC, 2016). Another mother said she worked 13 hours a day during her pregnancy just to afford transportation to and from the hospital as well she struggled to get rides through LogisticCare because they had to be made 3 days in advance and could not see her daughter while she was in the NICU. (SCDHEC, 2016). These are just a few examples of the major issues for low-income mothers in rural areas.
Recommended Solution:
One way I plan to increase access to maternal health care in rural areas of South Carolina is by using the PRECEDE-PROCEED health model. This includes social assessment, epidemiological assessment, ecological assessment, appropriate interventions, implementation, process evaluation, impact evaluation, and outcome evaluation. This project model was discussed in key insight 3 and was a model I learned in my HPEB 300: Introduction to Human Promotion, Education and Behavior class. 
The first thing I will do is select my demographic of all pregnant, low-income women in Sumter, South Carolina. Then I plan to create a program planning team. The team will be broken into four parts in order to adequately reach the population. The second team will be the budget team. This team will set up a budget for creating brochures for information on how to get free rides to the doctor’s office and about why prenatal care is important. A budget to purchase vans to take pregnant women to and from their appointments will also be created. This team will consist of members who will reach out to high traffic areas in the area to ask to set up information tents. These areas will include grocery stores, churches, and the library. The second team will be the rideshare team. This team will volunteer to take pregnant women and new mothers to their doctor’s appointments and will be placed on a schedule to do so. These people will be recruited through a volunteer recruiting team. This team will also be set up in high-traffic areas in order to find people who are willing to volunteer and stick to the schedule. Lastly, I will create a clinic group that will work with Prisma Health in order to set up a free pre-natal care clinic that is in Sumter. At this clinic, women will be able to receive free prenatal care items such as vitamins, health check-ups, and more information on how to have a healthy pregnancy. Team directors will be established that I will communicate with in order to ensure program success. This also relates to my key insight 3 beyond the classroom experience of my executive position in my sorority. I learned how to appropriately create interventions in my sorority to ensure the success of our chapter. 
I will evaluate the success of the program by looking for key numbers. One number I will evaluate in order to measure success is the infant mortality rate in Sumter, South Carolina. Six months after the program start’s I would see if there is a 25% decrease in the infant mortality rate in Sumter. The reason this is a good measure is if more pregnant women are able to receive the prenatal care they need and are able to attend appointments there should be a decrease in the infant mortality rate in the area. This will be a clear indicator of success and will attribute to lowering South Carolina’s overall mortality rate as South Carolina has one of the highest infant mortality rates at 7.0 deaths per 1,000 live births. (CDC, 2021).