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Pregnant and seeking asylum; exploring experiences 'from booking to baby'

Yes / Pregnant women seeking asylum in the UK may be particularly vulnerable with poor underlying health, more complex pregnancies and an increased risk of maternal and perinatal mortality. Studies have shown that some women seeking asylum have poor experiences of maternity care. This is despite the implementation of NICE guidelines to improve care for women with complex social factors.
This article reports on a phenomenological study undertaken in West Yorkshire, aiming to explore the maternity care experiences of local pregnant asylum seeking women, to inform service development. Six women were interviewed over a three-month period. The findings focused more broadly on their experiences of living in the UK whilst being an asylum seeker and pregnant rather than focusing on maternity care, although this was included. Five key themes emerged: ‘pre-booking challenges’, ‘inappropriate accommodation’, ‘being pregnant and dispersed’, ‘being alone and pregnant’ and ‘not being asked or listened to’. These findings could be used as the basis for training midwives to understand how the difficulties women experience can impact on their health and social needs.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/7689
Date02 February 2016
CreatorsLephard, E., Haith-Cooper, Melanie
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeArticle, Accepted manuscript
Rights© 2016 Mark Allen Healthcare. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy.

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