ABSTRACT
Quality maternal and newborn healthcare is essential to improve experiences and health outcomes for mothers and babies. In many low to middle income countries, such as Papua New Guinea, there are initiatives to increase antenatal care attendance and facility births. To develop and implement initiatives that are appropriate, relevant, and contextualised to a community, it is important to understand how quality of care is perceived and defined by different maternal and newborn healthcare stakeholders. The aim of this study was to understand how women, their partners, healthcare professionals, healthcare managers, and provincial health administrators in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea define quality of pregnancy, childbirth, and immediate postnatal care. An exploratory qualitative study underpinned by a partnership-defined quality approach was undertaken. In total, 42 participants from five different healthcare facilities in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea, were interviewed. These included women, partners, healthcare professionals, healthcare managers, and provincial health administrators. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis, assisted by NVivo computer software. Four themes were identified aligning with the journey a woman takes throughout the health system. These included (I) Ensuring Access: Arriving at the health centre, (II) Experiencing Positive Care: What the staff do, (III) Having the Bare Minimum: Resources available to the service, and (IV) Meeting Expectations: Outcomes of care. Stakeholder groups had significant overlap in how quality of care was defined, however women and partners focussed more on elements relating to experience of care, while clinical stakeholders focussed on elements relating to provision of care. There is a gap in how stakeholders define quality maternal and newborn healthcare, and the quality of the care which is administered and received.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Just over 300,000 women give birth in Australia each year. It is important for health care providers, managers, and policy makers know what women want from their care so services can be provided appropriately. This review is a part of the Midwifery Futures Project, which aims to prepare the midwifery workforce to best address the needs of women. The aim of this review was to describe and analyse current literature on the maternity care needs of women in Australia. METHODS: A scoping review methodology was used, guided by the Joanna Briggs Institute framework. A systematic search of the literature identified 9023 studies, and 59 met inclusion criteria: being peer-reviewed research focusing on maternity care needs, conducted in Australian populations, from 2012 to 2023. The studies were analysed using inductive content analysis. RESULTS: Four themes were developed: Continuity of care, being seen and heard, being safe, and being enabled. Continuity of care, especially a desire for midwifery continuity of care, was the central theme, as it was a tool supporting women to be seen and heard, safe, and enabled. CONCLUSION: This review highlights that women in Australia consistently want access to midwifery continuity of care as an enabler for addressing their maternity care needs. Transforming Australian maternity care policy and service provision towards continuity would better meet women's needs.
