Including the Excluded in Antenatal Care: A Systematic Review of Concerns for D/deaf Pregnant Women

This paper presents global evidence derived from a systematic review of the literature on the issues of D/deaf pregnant women and antenatal care. A comprehensive search through four bibliographic databases identified a dataset of 10,375 academic papers, from which six papers met the inclusion criteria for in-depth analysis related to D/deaf pregnant women’s use of antenatal care/clinics. Findings from the analysis revealed four major concerns for D/deaf pregnant women who attended antenatal clinics for care. These concerns were communication difficulties, satisfaction with antenatal care services, attendance at antenatal clinics, and associated health outcomes. Based on the identified issues and concerns, it is recommended that pre- and in-service healthcare workers should be trained on how to communicate through sign language with their D/deaf patients. In addition, there is a need to rapidly expand the body of knowledge on the issues concerning antenatal care for D/deaf pregnant women vis-à-vis their relationship with healthcare workers in antenatal facilities.