Giving Mums a Fair Go: culturally-responsive maternity care for refugee and migrant women in Australia

Project Details

One-third of births in Australia are to migrant women. Compared to Australian-born women, refugee and migrant women in Australia have worse birth experiences including discrimination and lack of culturally-respectful care, seek maternity care services later and less often, and have greater risks of poor health outcomes including stillbirth, neonatal morbidity, gestational diabetes, and postpartum depression.

How do migrant women experience pregnancy, birth, and the transition to motherhood in Australia? What does respectful maternity care look like to them? How can maternity services better support  migrant women to have healthy pregnancies and birth?

We want to build a better understanding of what migrant women and their families actually go through on their journeys through pregnancy to parenthood. These are difficult questions to ask and answer. These journeys take place in their homes, in their hearts, within their families and communities – in Australia and overseas, and within health services alongside their healthcare workers. Many of these stories are intimate, private, and difficult to explain.

In the Giving mums a fair go research programme, we explore challenges and opportunities to improve culturally-responsive care for women from migrant and refugee backgrounds in Australia through multiple projects:

1. Migrant mums and maternity care: participatory workshops and photo-elicitation interviews with international students and migrant women, to explore what makes it easier for women to access and use maternity care services, and how their experience of maternal care compared to their expectations.
2. Community-based doulas and health care providers' perspectives and experiences working together to support migrant women: explores the relationship between community-based doulas and health care providers (midwives, doctors, social workers) when supporting migrant women throughout labour and birth
3. The Resilience Project: uses photo elicitation interviews with Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi migrant women to explore their stories of pregnancy and birth during COVID-19 lockdowns in Victoria.

Researchers

Associate Professor Meghan A. Bohren

Martha Vazquez Corona

Alya Hazfiarini

Shurfa Buhary

Shahinoor Akter

Sarah Khaw

Dr Mridula Shankar

Associate Professor Karen Block

Funding

The Giving Mums a Fair Go project is supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council and the University of Melbourne.

Research Publications

1. Women from migrant and refugee backgrounds' perceptions and experiences of the continuum of maternity care in Australia: A qualitative evidence synthesis.

   This qualitative evidence synthesis brings together migrant and refugee women’s experiences of antenatal, childbirth and postnatal care in Australia to identify challenges and opportunities to improve.

2. Community-based doulas for migrant and refugee women: a mixed-method systematic review and narrative synthesis.

   This mixed-methods systematic review explores stakeholder perceptions and experiences of community-based doula programmes to support migrant and refugee women globally and identify factors leading to successful implementation and sustainability.

3. A qualitative study on community-based doulas' roles in providing culturally-responsive care to migrant women in Australia.

   This qualitative study with community-based doulas from Birth for Humankind and healthcare providers in Australia explores how community-based doulas play key roles in providing culturally-responsive care during pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal.

4. Collaborative relationships between doulas and maternity care providers when supporting migrant women during labour and birth.

   This qualitative study with community-based doulas from Birth for Humankind and healthcare providers in Australia explores the collaborative working relationships between community-based doulas and healthcare providers when supporting refugee and migrant women.