Care of the Migrant Obstetric Population

Immigrant women's experience of maternity services in Canada: A meta-ethnography

“…The demand for appropriate communication is illustrated by evidence that some hospital units located within a diverse neighbourhood in western Canada receive an average of 20 requests daily for language interpretation covering multiple languages (Higginbottom et al, 2010). Existing research in Canada has also indicated that immigrants are particularly disadvantaged in health literacy such as ability to interpret use health information (Rootman and Gordon-ElBihbety, 2008) due to lack of awareness of resources, language barriers, and limited social and institutional networks (Katz and Gagnon, 2002;Redwood-Campbell et al, 2008;Hayes et al, 2011;Higginbottom et al, 2011). In the postpartum period, immigrant women's information needs have been shown to be significantly higher than women born in Canada (Sword et al, 2006b).…”

“…Immigrant women having recently arrived in their host country and with poor social networks, limited language proficiency and lack of knowledge about accessing or inability to legitimately access medical or obstetric care are at the greatest risk for receiving poor maternity care (Sanmartin and Ross, 2006;Sword et al, 2006a;Hayes et al, 2011). A previous report has indicated that potential barriers for receiving effective Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/midw Midwifery health care in the United Kingdom (UK), Canada and Germany may include cultural misunderstandings, communication problems and racism (Salway et al, 2011).…”

“…Additionally, lack of informal supports (family/friends), barriers to formal supports (community groups) and limited financial resources are factors that may contribute to post partum depression in immigrants (Zelkowitz et al, 2004;O'Mahony and Donnelly, 2010). Culture, communication and literacy impeded immigrant women to receive appropriate maternity care (Katz and Gagnon, 2002;Redwood-Campbell et al, 2008;Hayes et al, 2011). To further enhance understandings of factors contributing to these disparities, synthesising findings from a number of qualitative studies, which often give primacy to the voices of immigrant women, will be beneficial in order to provide health care professionals and other stakeholders with an understanding to facilitate immigrant women's access and navigation of high quality and meaningful maternity care.…”

Supporting an ethnic minority woman's choice for pain relief in labour: A reflection

“…Reports from the Confidential Enquiries into maternal deaths have identified disproportionately higher mortality rates in the ethnic minority population (Hayes et al, 2011). …”

“…The capacity to decision make is based on a woman understanding and using information about treatment when making a decision (Griffith, 2011). However, no individual has the right to accept or decline medical treatment on behalf of another unless they have specific legal authority to do so (Hayes et al, 2011).Working in accordance with the NMC Code (2015) midwives must be able to demonstrate that they have acted in the best interests of their client when providing care in an emergency.…”