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Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis

BACKGROUND: Canada’s diverse society and its statutory commitment to multiculturalism means that a synthesis of knowledge related to the healthcare experiences of immigrants is essential to realise the health potential for future Canadians. Although concerns about the maternity experiences of immigr...

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Autores principales: Higginbottom, Gina MA, Morgan, Myfanwy, Alexandre, Mirande, Chiu, Yvonne, Forgeron, Joan, Kocay, Deb, Barolia, Rubina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4506414/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26187687
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-13
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author Higginbottom, Gina MA
Morgan, Myfanwy
Alexandre, Mirande
Chiu, Yvonne
Forgeron, Joan
Kocay, Deb
Barolia, Rubina
author_facet Higginbottom, Gina MA
Morgan, Myfanwy
Alexandre, Mirande
Chiu, Yvonne
Forgeron, Joan
Kocay, Deb
Barolia, Rubina
author_sort Higginbottom, Gina MA
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Canada’s diverse society and its statutory commitment to multiculturalism means that a synthesis of knowledge related to the healthcare experiences of immigrants is essential to realise the health potential for future Canadians. Although concerns about the maternity experiences of immigrants in Canada are relatively new, recent national guidelines explicitly call for the tailoring of services to user needs. We therefore assessed the experiences of immigrant women accessing maternity-care services in Canada. In particular, we investigated the experiences of immigrant women in Canada in accessing and navigating maternity and related healthcare services from conception to 6 months postpartum in Canada. Our focus was on (a) the accessibility and acceptability of maternity-care services for immigrant women and (b) the effects of the perceptions and experiences of these women on their birth and postnatal outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review using a systematic search and narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed reports of empirical research, with the aim of providing stakeholders with perspectives on maternity-care services as experienced by immigrant women. We partnered with key stakeholders (‘integrated knowledge users’) to ensure the relevancy of topics and to tailor recommendations for effective translation into future policy, practice and programming. Two search phases and a three-stage selection process for published and grey literature were conducted prior to appraisal of literature quality and narrative synthesis of the findings. RESULTS: Our knowledge synthesis of maternity care among immigrants to Canada provided a coherent evidence base for (a) eliciting a better understanding of the factors that generate disparities in accessibility, acceptability and outcomes during maternity care; and (b) improving culturally based competency in maternity care. Our synthesis also identified pertinent issues in multiple sectors that should be addressed to configure maternity services and programs appropriately. CONCLUSIONS: Although immigrant women in Canada are generally given the opportunity to obtain necessary services, they face many barriers in accessing and utilising these services. These barriers include lack of information about or awareness of the services, insufficient supports to access these services and discordant expectations between the women and their service providers. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42012002185. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2046-4053-4-13) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-45064142015-07-19 Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis Higginbottom, Gina MA Morgan, Myfanwy Alexandre, Mirande Chiu, Yvonne Forgeron, Joan Kocay, Deb Barolia, Rubina Syst Rev Research BACKGROUND: Canada’s diverse society and its statutory commitment to multiculturalism means that a synthesis of knowledge related to the healthcare experiences of immigrants is essential to realise the health potential for future Canadians. Although concerns about the maternity experiences of immigrants in Canada are relatively new, recent national guidelines explicitly call for the tailoring of services to user needs. We therefore assessed the experiences of immigrant women accessing maternity-care services in Canada. In particular, we investigated the experiences of immigrant women in Canada in accessing and navigating maternity and related healthcare services from conception to 6 months postpartum in Canada. Our focus was on (a) the accessibility and acceptability of maternity-care services for immigrant women and (b) the effects of the perceptions and experiences of these women on their birth and postnatal outcomes. METHODS: We conducted a systematic review using a systematic search and narrative synthesis of peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed reports of empirical research, with the aim of providing stakeholders with perspectives on maternity-care services as experienced by immigrant women. We partnered with key stakeholders (‘integrated knowledge users’) to ensure the relevancy of topics and to tailor recommendations for effective translation into future policy, practice and programming. Two search phases and a three-stage selection process for published and grey literature were conducted prior to appraisal of literature quality and narrative synthesis of the findings. RESULTS: Our knowledge synthesis of maternity care among immigrants to Canada provided a coherent evidence base for (a) eliciting a better understanding of the factors that generate disparities in accessibility, acceptability and outcomes during maternity care; and (b) improving culturally based competency in maternity care. Our synthesis also identified pertinent issues in multiple sectors that should be addressed to configure maternity services and programs appropriately. CONCLUSIONS: Although immigrant women in Canada are generally given the opportunity to obtain necessary services, they face many barriers in accessing and utilising these services. These barriers include lack of information about or awareness of the services, insufficient supports to access these services and discordant expectations between the women and their service providers. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO registration number: CRD42012002185. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2046-4053-4-13) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2015-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC4506414/ /pubmed/26187687 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-13 Text en © Higginbottom et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Higginbottom, Gina MA
Morgan, Myfanwy
Alexandre, Mirande
Chiu, Yvonne
Forgeron, Joan
Kocay, Deb
Barolia, Rubina
Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis
title Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis
title_full Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis
title_fullStr Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis
title_full_unstemmed Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis
title_short Immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in Canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis
title_sort immigrant women’s experiences of maternity-care services in canada: a systematic review using a narrative synthesis
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4506414/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26187687
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-13
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