Mothers’ experiences of perinatal care in Belgian public hospitals: exploring the social inequalities. Protocol for a cross-sectional survey

Introduction In Europe, the social inequalities in perinatal health are usually found to be to the disadvantage of non-European immigrants and women with lower levels of education and income. Among the possible underlying mechanisms are inadequate access to healthcare services and suboptimal care. To explore this hypothesis in the Belgian context, our research will describe detailed maternal socioeconomic and migration characteristics, explore how these factors relate to each other, and how they relate to women’s perinatal care trajectories and experiences of care. Methods Using a modified ver... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Schönborn, Claudia
Castetbon, Katia
Sow, Mouctar
Racape, Judith
De Spiegelaere, Myriam
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2020
Reihe/Periodikum: BMJ Open ; volume 10, issue 11, page e038400 ; ISSN 2044-6055 2044-6055
Verlag/Hrsg.: BMJ
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-29304083
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-038400

Introduction In Europe, the social inequalities in perinatal health are usually found to be to the disadvantage of non-European immigrants and women with lower levels of education and income. Among the possible underlying mechanisms are inadequate access to healthcare services and suboptimal care. To explore this hypothesis in the Belgian context, our research will describe detailed maternal socioeconomic and migration characteristics, explore how these factors relate to each other, and how they relate to women’s perinatal care trajectories and experiences of care. Methods Using a modified version of the Migrant-Friendly Maternity Care Questionnaire, we will survey 900 mothers of Belgian nationality or a nationality from a North or Sub-Saharan African country, and having given birth in four maternity wards in Brussels. The questionnaire has been adapted to the study objectives and the Belgian context. Interviewers will administer the 116-item questionnaire to all women agreeing to participate and meeting inclusion criteria, within 14 days of having given birth. Clinical information will be extracted from hospital records. Analysis We will estimate the associations of women’s socioeconomic and migration characteristics with: Women’s antenatal care trajectories (timing of first antenatal consultation, minimum recommended number of consultations, and problems accessing care). Obstetric practices such as episiotomies, emergency caesarean sections, and inductions. Patient experience such as feelings of discrimination, respect, and understanding of information. We will use descriptive statistics, multiple correspondence analysis, and simple and multiple logistic regressions. Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval has been obtained from the hospital Ethics Committees and from the Université libre de Bruxelles (No: P2017/055/B406201730877). Written informed consent will be sought from all participants. In addition to disseminating findings and recommendations to the scientific community through open-source journal ...