Recommendations for improving maternal health services in Indonesian primary care under the COVID-19 pandemic: Results of a systematic review and appraisal of international guidelines

BACKGROUND: A large volume of evidence and reviews about COVID-19 recommendations have been published; however, only a few provide recommendations on maternal health services ready for their adoption in Indonesia. This review aims to identify a set of potential recommendations for improving maternal care in the Indonesian primary care setting under the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A literature search to identify articles that cover a set of recommendations, or maternal guideline under the SARS-COV-1 outbreak or COVID-19 pandemic that were published from 2020 to 1 November 2022 was applied in six academic databases. The search used various keywords and phrases of ‘maternal’, ‘model’ and ‘coronavirus’, and excluded reviews and those evaluating interventions or medicine prescription. The eligible guidelines were appraised using AGREE II instrument, coded, and thematically analysed for their potential adoption to Indonesian settings. FINDINGS: Fourteen guidelines were fully reviewed, and most of them had high AGREE II scores. Two main themes emerged from the analysis: clinical and supporting arrangements for maternal health services. Potential challenges for the implementation of these recommendations in Indonesia were also discussed. CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION FOR PRACTICE: Potential recommendations for improving maternal health for women in Indonesia under the COVID-19 pandemic both on the clinical and supporting services arrangements have been identified. Available clinical resources, different context of providers’ practice authority and patients’ literacy may challenge their implementation in practice. Further research is needed to seek consensus on the recommendation adoption in practice and to desirably redesign maternal health service in Indonesia.