IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0228378.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Migrant women’s experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity care in European countries: A systematic review

Author

Listed:
  • Frankie Fair
  • Liselotte Raben
  • Helen Watson
  • Victoria Vivilaki
  • Maria van den Muijsenbergh
  • Hora Soltani
  • the ORAMMA team

Abstract

Background: Across Europe there are increasing numbers of migrant women who are of childbearing age. Migrant women are at risk of poorer pregnancy outcomes. Models of maternity care need to be designed to meet the needs of all women in society to ensure equitable access to services and to address health inequalities. Objective: To provide up-to-date systematic evidence on migrant women’s experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity care in their destination European country. Search strategy: CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO and Scopus were searched for peer-reviewed articles published between 2007 and 2017. Selection criteria: Qualitative and mixed-methods studies with a relevant qualitative component were considered for inclusion if they explored any aspect of migrant women's experiences of maternity care in Europe. Data collection and analysis: Qualitative data were extracted and analysed using thematic synthesis. Results: The search identified 7472 articles, of which 51 were eligible and included. Studies were conducted in 14 European countries and focused on women described as migrants, refugees or asylum seekers. Four overarching themes emerged: ‘Finding the way—the experience of navigating the system in a new place’, ‘We don't understand each other’, ‘The way you treat me matters’, and ‘My needs go beyond being pregnant’. Conclusions: Migrant women need culturally-competent healthcare providers who provide equitable, high quality and trauma-informed maternity care, undergirded by interdisciplinary and cross-agency team-working and continuity of care. New models of maternity care are needed which go beyond clinical care and address migrant women's unique socioeconomic and psychosocial needs.

Suggested Citation

  • Frankie Fair & Liselotte Raben & Helen Watson & Victoria Vivilaki & Maria van den Muijsenbergh & Hora Soltani & the ORAMMA team, 2020. "Migrant women’s experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and maternity care in European countries: A systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(2), pages 1-26, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0228378
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228378
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228378
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0228378&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0228378?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Phillimore, Jenny, 2016. "Migrant maternity in an era of superdiversity: New migrants' access to, and experience of, antenatal care in the West Midlands, UK," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 152-159.
    2. Simon Lewin & Claire Glenton & Heather Munthe-Kaas & Benedicte Carlsen & Christopher J Colvin & Metin Gülmezoglu & Jane Noyes & Andrew Booth & Ruth Garside & Arash Rashidian, 2015. "Using Qualitative Evidence in Decision Making for Health and Social Interventions: An Approach to Assess Confidence in Findings from Qualitative Evidence Syntheses (GRADE-CERQual)," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(10), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Binder, Pauline & Johnsdotter, Sara & Essén, Birgitta, 2012. "Conceptualising the prevention of adverse obstetric outcomes among immigrants using the ‘three delays’ framework in a high-income context," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(11), pages 2028-2036.
    4. Paola Bollini & Urszula Stotzer & Philippe Wanner, 2007. "Pregnancy outcomes and migration in Switzerland: results from a focus group study," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 52(2), pages 78-86, April.
    5. Mullan, F. & Epstein, L., 2002. "Community-oriented primary care: New relevance in a changing world," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 92(11), pages 1748-1755.
    6. Signe Nielsen & Allan Krasnik, 2010. "Poorer self-perceived health among migrants and ethnic minorities versus the majority population in Europe: a systematic review," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 55(5), pages 357-371, October.
    7. Hill Kulu & Tina Hannemann & Ariane Pailhé & Karel Neels & Sandra Krapf & Amparo González-Ferrer & Gunnar Andersson, 2017. "Fertility by Birth Order among the Descendants of Immigrants in Selected European Countries," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 43(1), pages 31-60, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Matias Reus-Pons & Eva U. B. Kibele & Fanny Janssen, 2017. "Differences in healthy life expectancy between older migrants and non-migrants in three European countries over time," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 62(5), pages 531-540, June.
    2. Sara Jewett Nieuwoudt & Christian B Ngandu & Lenore Manderson & Shane A Norris, 2019. "Exclusive breastfeeding policy, practice and influences in South Africa, 1980 to 2018: A mixed-methods systematic review," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(10), pages 1-25, October.
    3. Lisa Van Landschoot & Helga de Valk & Jan Van Bavel, 2017. "Fertility among descendants of immigrants in Belgium: The role of the partner," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(60), pages 1827-1858.
    4. Sehar Ezdi & Ahmet Melik Baş, 2020. "Gender preferences and fertility: Investigating the case of Turkish immigrants in Germany," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 43(3), pages 59-96.
    5. Nnamdi Ifeanyi Maduekwe & Olufunmilayo O. Banjo & Mike O. Sangodapo, 2018. "Data for the Sustainable Development Goals: Metrics for Evaluating Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems Data Relevance and Production Capacity, Illustrations with Nigeria," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 140(1), pages 101-124, November.
    6. Emina Hadziabdic & Katarina Hjelm, 2022. "Comparison of Beliefs about Health in Migrants and Swedish-Born Persons with Type 2 Diabetes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-12, October.
    7. Francesca Decimo, 2021. "The Transnational Making of Population: Migration, Marriage and Fertility Between Morocco and Italy," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 289-310, March.
    8. Howard White & Bianca Albers & Marie Gaarder & Hege Kornør & Julia Littell & Zack Marshall & Christine Mathew & Terri Pigott & Birte Snilstveit & Hugh Waddington & Vivian Welch, 2020. "Guidance for producing a Campbell evidence and gap map," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), December.
    9. Kamila Hynek & Aslaug Gotehus & Fredrik Methi & Ragnhild Bang Nes & Vegard Skirbekk & Thomas Hansen, 2023. "Caregiving + Migrant Background = Double Jeopardy? Associations between Caregiving and Physical and Psychological Health According to Migrant Backgrounds in Norway," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-13, May.
    10. Simon Jean-Baptiste Combes & Nathalie Simonnot & Fabienne Azzedine & Abdessamad Aznague & Pierre Chauvin, 2019. "Self-Perceived Health among Migrants Seen in Médecins du Monde Free Clinics in Europe: Impact of Length of Stay and Wealth of Country of Origin on Migrants’ Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(24), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Akio Tada & Hiroko Miura, 2019. "The Relationship between Vitamin C and Periodontal Diseases: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-15, July.
    12. André Ramalho & João Serrano & Rui Paulo & Pedro Duarte-Mendes & António Rosado & João Petrica, 2021. "Emerging Qualitative Research Trends (2010–2021) on Sedentary Behaviour among Older Adults: A Systematic Literature Review Protocol," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-8, November.
    13. Allan Puur & Leen Rahnu & Tiit Tammaru, 2023. "Neighbourhoods and Workplaces: Are They Related to the Fertility of Immigrants and Their Descendants? A Register-Based Study of Finland, 1999–2014," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 209-231, March.
    14. Fabienne Jaeger & Mazeda Hossain & Ligia Kiss & Cathy Zimmerman, 2012. "The health of migrant children in Switzerland," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 57(4), pages 659-671, August.
    15. Thomas Grochtdreis & Hans-Helmut König & Steffi G. Riedel-Heller & Judith Dams, 2022. "Health-Related Quality of Life of Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Germany: a Cross-Sectional Study with Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(1), pages 109-127, February.
    16. Ben Wilson, 2020. "Understanding How Immigrant Fertility Differentials Vary over the Reproductive Life Course," European Journal of Population, Springer;European Association for Population Studies, vol. 36(3), pages 465-498, July.
    17. Marjorie Chinen & Thomas de Hoop & María Balarin & Lorena Alcázar, 2016. "PROTOCOL: Vocational and business training to increase women's participation in higher skilled occupations in low‐ and middle‐income countries: protocol for a systematic review," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), pages 1-46.
    18. Shirmin Bintay Kader & Md Sabbir Ahmed & Kristen Desjarlais-deKlerk & Xavier Leloup & Laurence Simard & Catherine Leviten-Reid & Nazeem Muhajarine, 2024. "Rental Housing Type and Self-Reported General Health and Mental Health Status: Evidence from the Canadian Housing Survey 2018–2019," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(9), pages 1-19, September.
    19. Sylvie Dubuc, 2017. "Fertility and education among British Asian women: a success story of social mobility?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 15(1), pages 269-291.
    20. Oliver Razum & Jacob Spallek, 2014. "Addressing health-related interventions to immigrants: migrant-specific or diversity-sensitive?," International Journal of Public Health, Springer;Swiss School of Public Health (SSPH+), vol. 59(6), pages 893-895, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0228378. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.