Barrier-free Communication in Maternity Care of Allophone Migrants

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Expectant and Nursing Mother; Communication; Experiences
• Interventions: Other: Focus Group Discussion; Other: One-to-one Interview; Other: Focus Group Discussion in native Language; Other: Retrospective Quantitative Analysis

• Registration Number: NCT02695316
• Lead Sponsor: Bern University of Applied Sciences

Brief Summary

The aim of this study is to describe access and communication barriers of migrant women who do not speak the local language in the Swiss maternity care service provision from the perspective of users, health care professionals and interpreters.

Detailed Description

In Switzerland pregnant migrant women and their families are burdened in multiple ways: pregnancy requires an adjustment process and women have to deal with foreign living conditions, limited communication or the uncertainty of their residence status. An increased maternal and child health morbidity and mortality in migrants is well documented. A poor health outcome seems also to be correlated with a limited access to obstetric and maternity care services for migrants. Nearly 10% of foreigners living in Switzerland for more than one year do not speak any of the official languages. In women native of non-EU27 and -EFTA countries and asylum seekers, these rate is considerably higher.

To improve maternity care services for migrants in Switzerland several measures have been taken in the past, e.g. Hospitals for Equity, promotion of transcultural skills, written multilingual health information and interpreter services in hospitals. The availability of comparable measures in outpatient or home care services is rather an exception. One example is the midwives network "FamilyStart", an outpatient institution that offers a helpline and home visiting services for mothers and thier newborns. It collaborates with the National Telephone Interpreter Service.

It is currently unclear how successfully midwives and other health care professionals communicate with allophone migrants, if they use and benefit from any of the currently available support measures and thus may improve the access of migrant women to maternity care in Switzerland.

The study aims

* to describe the access and communication barriers of allophone women with different migration backgrounds in maternity and obstetric health services from the perspective of users, health care professionals and Interpreters

* to make prioritized recommendations on behalf of the Swiss Midwives Association and other professional associations for improving the quality and access of maternity care Services; the transcultural understanding between professionals and users; and the coordination between the different involved services.

It is an exploratory study in three parts:

1. User perspective: Qualitative assessment of the women's experiences. The participants have different migration backgrounds: representatives of the resident foreign population of Switzerland (from Kosovo or Albania with native language Albanian) and asylum seekers (from Eritrea with native language Tigrinya) will be interviewed.

2. Perspective of professionals: Qualitative assessment of the health care professionals experiences and quantitative analysis of protocols of counseling sessions from midwives who have used the telephone interpreting service during a home visit on behalf of FamilyStart.

3. Perspective of interpreters: Qualitative assessment of experiences of professional Interpreters.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2015-09
• Study First Submitted: 2016-02-09
• Study First Submitted QC: 2016-02-29
• Study First Posted: 2016-03-01
• Primary Completion: 2016-06
• Study Completion: 2016-12
• Status Verified: 2017-01
• Last Update Submitted: 2017-01-31
• Last Update Posted: 2017-02-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 82

Inclusion Criteria

Not provided

Exclusion Criteria

Not provided

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Health Care Professionals	Focus Group Discussion	Focus Group Discussion with n=20 Health Care Professionals
Interpreters	One-to-one Interview	One-to-one Interviews with n=4 intercultural Interpreters
Migrant Women	Focus Group Discussion in native Language	Focus Group Discussion in native Language with n=20
Telephone Interpreting Protocols	Retrospective Quantitative Analysis	Retrospective quantitative analysis of n=50 Telephone Interpreting Protocols (questionnairs)

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Experiences of migrant women by focus group discussions	after 6 weeks, up to 12 months	Qualitative description of experiences made with maternity care services during pregnancy, birth, post partum up to one year after birth

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Experiences of health care professionals by focus group discussions	within last five years of their professional experience	Qualitative description of working experiences in maternity care with allohone migrants
Experiences of Interpreters by one-to-one interview	within last five years of their professional experience	Qualitative description of working experiences when interpreting for pregnant women or mothers in maternity care services
Quality of telephone interpreting consultations with questionnairs	within 24 hours after the consultation	Descriptive analysis of protocols of telephone interpreted consultations with information on aim, content, perceived benefits and difficulties

Trial Locations

Locations (6)

FamilyStart; 🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland

Zurich Universtiy of Applied Sciences; 🇨🇭 Winterthur, Zurcih, Switzerland

Swiss Service for Telephone Interpreter (Schweizerischer Telefondolmetschdienst ); 🇨🇭 Zürich, Switzerland

Swiss Midwifery Association SHV; 🇨🇭 Bern, Switzerland

University Hospital Basel; 🇨🇭 Basel, Switzerland

University Hospital Insel Bern; 🇨🇭 Bern, Switzerland