Maternity care: experiences of asylum seekers and refugees in Coventry
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Healthwatch Coventry funded Carriers of Hope, an organisation that supports refugees and asylum seekers, to undertake research about the experience of refugee women giving birth. They undertook focus groups and interviews, speaking to 31 women.
Communication challenges was the biggest issue impacting this group of women during their pregnancy, birth and post-natal care. This led to a lack of information about how to access services at each stage of the maternity journey and therefore a lack of helpful support. The connections with services and professionals were not meaningful and the women with linguistic barriers and cultural differences suffered most from a lack of knowledge during pregnancy.
Lack of effective interpretation/translation and communication support is a significant issue. From the stories gathered this impacted on care and outcomes. Gaps in Arabic interpretation were flagged. The women were not empowered and felt without a voice.
For these women the current approach of trying to support pregnant asylum seeker and refugee women through normal service pathways and approaches isn’t working very well. Healthcare managers and workers need to understand how difficult it is for them to navigate services. Some women attributed behaviours towards them to racism and lack of cultural understanding.
The cost of bus fares, dependence on the others for transport and childcare difficulties all lead to lost appointments. The research also identified issues related to breastfeeding support and barriers to mental health identification. The participants had challenging day to day lives influenced by poverty, housing conditions, being in an unfamiliar environment and cut off from family. The women talked about the stress of competing priorities, family conflicts, childcare issues, poverty, and reporting to the Home Office. There was some confusion about the cost of services/eligibility for services and support. Some also had transient lives, being moved and rehomed a number of times.
The report has three recommendations about the provision of maternity