UK maternity care experiences of ethnic minority and migrant women: Systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The increasing population of immigrant and migrant women in the United Kingdom has implications to the provision of healthcare and for healthcare experiences. Eliciting women's experiences and perceptions of maternity care received is an important way of monitoring and evaluating the quality of maternity services. This study was designed to explore the maternity care experiences of ethnic minority and migrant women in the United Kingdom. METHODS: A literature search for relevant studies was carried across seven databases. We included nine studies carried out between 2015 and February 2022 that met the inclusion criteria. Data were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach. RESULTS: Findings showed that ethnic minority women and migrant women have had mixed experiences while utilizing maternity services in the United Kingdom. However, most of the experiences were negative and included issues related to communication, discrimination, culture, access to care, physical comfort, and continuity of care. Only one of the studies reported that the respondents had a wholly positive communication experience, one found that a few women felt the staff were respectful and one reported that the midwives gave the women treatment options that would respect their cultural and religious beliefs. CONCLUSION: This study has highlighted some important gaps in the maternity care experiences specific to ethnic minority and migrant women in the United Kingdom which provides useful insights to future policy and clinical practice.

Uncharted territory: a narrative review of parental involvement in decision-making about late preterm and early term delivery.

Almost 30% of live births in England and Wales occur late preterm or early term (LPET) and are associated with increased risks of adverse health outcomes throughout the lifespan. However, very little is known about the decision-making processes concerning planned LPET births or the involvement of parents in these. This aim of this paper is to review the evidence on parental involvement in obstetric decision-making in general, to consider what can be extrapolated to decisions about LPET delivery, and to suggest directions for further research.A comprehensive, narrative review of relevant literature was conducted using Medline, MIDIRS, PsycInfo and CINAHL databases. Appropriate search terms were combined with Boolean operators to ensure the following broad areas were included: obstetric decision-making, parental involvement, late preterm and early term birth, and mode of delivery.This review suggests that parents' preferences with respect to their inclusion in decision-making vary. Most mothers prefer sharing decision-making with their clinicians and up to half are dissatisfied with the extent of their involvement. Clinicians' opinions on the limits of parental involvement, especially where the safety of mother or baby is potentially compromised, are highly influential in the obstetric decision-making process. Other important factors include contextual factors (such as the nature of the issue under discussion and the presence or absence of relevant medical indications for a requested intervention), demographic and other individual characteristics (such as ethnicity and parity), the quality of communication; and the information provided to parents.This review highlights the overarching need to explore how decisions about potential LPET delivery may be reached in order to maximise the satisfaction of mothers and fathers with their involvement in the decision-making process whilst simultaneously enabling clinicians both to minimise the number of LPET births and to optimise the wellbeing of women and babies.