Comprehensive assessment of women’s reproductive health in correctional institutions and development of recommendations for improving medical care in penitentiary institutions: A literature review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37800/RM.2.2025.519Keywords:
women’s health, reproductive health, correctional facilities, health services accessibility, prisoners, maternal health servicesAbstract
Relevance: This review explored reproductive health challenges faced by incarcerated women, evaluated the effectiveness of interventions, identified barriers to care, and highlighted research gaps to develop evidence-based recommendations for improving global healthcare equity.
The study aimed to understand the specific reproductive and maternal health needs of women in prison, including access to antenatal care, contraception, and other key healthcare needs.
Materials and Methods: This systematic literature review, conducted according to PRISMA guidelines, analyzed 35 studies published between 2019 and 2024. Records were sourced from PubMed and Google Scholar, filtering 16,604 entries to identify key reproductive health challenges and recommendations for correctional institutions.
Results: The review included studies from diverse regions, with the majority originating in the United States. These studies encompassed literature reviews and cross-sectional and qualitative designs, with sample sizes ranging from small qualitative studies to cohorts exceeding 14,000 participants. Key challenges identified included inadequate prenatal care, racial disparities, barriers to contraception and abortion, and high STI prevalence. The use of such interventions as trauma-informed care and enhanced prenatal programs had moderate success. However, it was still evident that there were several shortcomings in providing mental health services and managing infections. The barriers were structural inequalities, crowding, data gaps, and non-sensitive gender policies.
Conclusions: Women during incarceration were noted to have serious challenges in their reproductive health, which included poor management, structural obstacles, and a lack of availability of necessary services. There was a need to introduce urgent reforms, implement empirically proven strategies, and strengthen the relevant policies to redress such inequalities.
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