Almost all people who have a child use maternity care. Almost, because every year more than 29,000 parents receive little or no maternity care. For example, 1.2% receive no maternity care at all, and more than 15% receive 24 hours of maternity care or less. That has to change. Because women and children who receive little or no maternity care run a higher risk of health problems. That is why Pharos and Erasmus MC are committed to accessible maternity care.
Maternity care is often seen as a very accessible form of care. However, that accessibility is not for everyone. For example, certain groups make too little use of maternity care. For example, single mothers, families with a low level of education or a migration background. That is bad for the health of mother and child. The healthcare costs show that it is precisely families in vulnerable situations that need extra care in the year after the birth.
- Women who receive no maternity care at all incur higher health care costs for themselves in the first year after giving birth.
- Women who receive less than 24 hours of maternity care have higher health care costs not only for themselves, but also for their child due to health problems after the maternity period1.
Accessible maternity care for vulnerable families
It is especially important for vulnerable families that they receive appropriate support from birth. However, maternity care must be easily accessible to families in vulnerable situations.
Maternity nurse Elise* explains: “Some parents have no idea of maternity care at all, or only a little bit. For example, they think that the maternity nurse only comes to brush and wash the baby. They do not always know that the maternity nurse carries out medical checks on mother and child and supervises breastfeeding.”
Projects on accessible maternity care
To make maternity care more accessible, we started the project ‘A promising start for every family: The importance of appropriate maternity care’ together with the Obstetrics & Gynecology department of Erasmus MC. This project is funded by ZonMw and is a follow-up to the research ‘The best maternity care for the vulnerable pregnant woman and her child’.
“They don’t always know that the maternity nurse checks mother and child medically and supervises breastfeeding”
Maternity nurse Elise
In conversation with (expectant) mothers and healthcare professionals
Initial exploratory discussions with both birth care professionals and (future) parents show that parents with a low SEP background are not always fully aware of the importance of maternity care. It can be difficult for healthcare professionals to inform them optimally about this. This was discussed during two meetings. These are the so-called ‘making sessions’ with maternity nurses, youth nurses and midwives from the practice. Representatives of Al Amal and Health Information Officers were also present.
Making sessions
We practically put in the sessions. Together we looked at the steps that expectant parents go through before and after registering for maternity care. And what the bottlenecks are in finding, applying for and purchasing care. For each step, we asked ourselves the question ‘What makes the parent not opt for all hours of maternity care?’ And we investigated how to improve the information in that specific step. With all the knowledge this creates, we develop and implement information and products in practice together. In this way we can tackle the challenges of accessible maternity care.
To stay informed?
Do you want to stay informed about accessible maternity care? Or are you a maternity nurse, obstetrician, gynaecologist or youth nurse who would like to contribute to this project/research? Let Naïma Abouri, senior project leader / researcher team grow up healthy ([email protected]). You will then receive an email when there are new developments or products.
*Names in this article have been changed.
1Lagendijk, J., Steegers, E., & Been, J. (2019). Inequity in postpartum healthcare provision at home and its association with subsequent healthcare expenditure. European Journal of Public Health, 29(5), 849-855.