Do experiences with pregnancy, birth and postnatal care in Norway vary by the women’s geographic origin? a comparison of cross-sectional survey results

Abstract

BackgroundA national survey was conducted to measure and benchmark women’s experiences with pregnancy, birth and postnatal care in Norway. The purpose of this secondary analysis is to explore potential variation in these experiences with regard to the survey respondents’ geographic origin.MethodsData were collected in a national observational cross-sectional study, by a self-administered questionnaire and from registries. The questionnaire collects patient reported experience measures (PREMS) of mainly nontechnical aspects of the health-care services. While taking the clustered characteristics of the respondents into consideration, we compared the mean scores on 16 indexes between women of four different geographic origins using linear regression models.ResultsThe origin of the 4904 respondents were classified as Norway (n = 4028, 82%), Western Europe, North-America, Oceania (n = 233, 5%), Eastern Europe (n = 290, 6%), and Asia, Turkey, Africa, and South-America) (n = 353, 7%). The observed differences were moderate, and no consistency was present in the results in respect of direction or magnitude of the differences between the groups.ConclusionsWith some important cautions, we conclude that this study did not detect systematic differences between groups of different geographic origin, in their experiences with pregnancy and maternity care in Norway.

Satisfaction with maternity care among recent migrants: an interview questionnaire-based study

“…We found no association between overall satisfaction and mother's region of birth in our study, in agreement with other studies, 19 48 49 including one conducted in Norway. 50 While some studies have found higher satisfaction among migrants compared with non-migrants, 35 41 42 other studies have found the opposite. 40 However, we did not include non-migrants, as our aim was not to compare migrant women to the majority population.…”

User satisfaction with antenatal care in Norway

“…These results are comparable with findings from other studies showing overall high levels of satisfaction with maternal care in Norway. 7,10 The observed scores for the scales User Participation, Accessibility, Information, and Midwife were generally high, with the highest result for the Midwife scale. The overall high levels of satisfaction with midwives at public health clinics were also frequently expressed in the user comments, which highlighted midwives' high levels of relational and professional competence, as well as their good accessibility.…”

“…Sjetne and Iversen 10 found no systematic differences in experiences of maternal care in Norway based on geographical origin. However, it is important to note that their study assessed satisfaction shortly after birth, which may lead to an overestimation.…”

“…Several studies have examined maternal care in Norway, 7–10 but only a few have studied user satisfaction with antenatal care. In their hospital study, Bains et al 7 found overall high satisfaction with maternal care among migrants.…”

“…Recognizing that satisfaction with care is an important predictor of healthcare utilization, it becomes a modifiable risk factor for adverse outcomes. 6,7 Several studies have examined maternal care in Norway, [7][8][9][10] but only a few have studied user satisfaction with antenatal care. In their hospital study, Bains et al 7 found overall high satisfaction with maternal care among migrants.…”