Maternity care experiences of asylum seekers and refugees
Healthwatch Coventry worked in partnership with local charity Carriers of Hope to understand maternity experiences of a group of vulnerable women.
We heard about communication problems, missed appointments, confusion and how hard it was to navigate and use the services and get support.
Most of those who took part did not speak English or had limited English skills and they were new to health care in Coventry.
Translation and interpretation services were patchy and did not meet needs as some languages were not readily available.
These women had challenging day to day lives influenced by poverty and housing conditions. Some women attributed behaviours towards them to racism and lack of cultural understanding.
We also identified issues related to breastfeeding support and barriers to mental health identification.
What next?
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.
So we made the following recommendations to local NHS leaders and decision makers:
1. Review provision to understand the best way to provide maternity information and care to asylum seeker and refugee women:
a) to look at alternative models of providing services that will reach the women and overcome barriers of access.
b) to address continuity of care by creating connections with named health care professions, as this is important for establishing trust with asylum seeker end refugee women.
2. Develop ways to ensure women can understand information about appointments. Sending letters in English about translation/ interpretation is not effective.
3. Address the accessibility and effectiveness of interpretation/translation services, this must be improved.
