The Migrant & Ethnic Minority Group Experiences of Maternity Services in Ireland Project

Aims & Objectives

Evidence from European countries consistently highlights that women from migrant and ethnic minority backgrounds face disproportionately higher risks of obstetric complications and negative patient experience compared to their host population counterparts.

This project explores the key barriers and enablers that migrant women and ethnic minorities (M&EM) experience when accessing and using maternity services.  The findings will inform the development of a quality improvement initiative focused on improving the experience of migrant women and ethnic minorities.

How

We will test this novel quality improvement initiative to address ethnic minority disparities in the experience and outcome of perinatal care at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH). The hospital is a level IV maternity hospital associated with an academic medical centre. It hosts the National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre (NPEC) and has a range of research and quality improvement initiatives ongoing at any one time. It is one of the largest in the country and caters to an increasingly diverse population. Although there are no published statistics on disparity by ethnic group at CUMH there is concern among clinical staff that both process (e.g., attendance rates at antenatal clinics) and outcome measures (e.g., early-term deliveries) are higher in these groups and will serve as a focus for the quality improvement plan.

Principal Investigators: Professor John R. Higgins; Professor John Browne

Research Team:

Clinical Leadership: Professor John R. Higgins (Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Univeristy College Cork)

Quality Improvement Expert: Professor John Browne (School of Public Health, Univeristy College Cork)

Statistical Experts:  Dr Paul Corcoran, Dr Joye McKernan (National Perinatal Epidemiology Centre)

Postdoctoral Researcher (Phase One): Dr Laura Cronin (Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Univeristy College Cork)

Quality & Safety Manager: Ms Aideen Quigley (The National Women and Infants Health Programme)

Project Manager: Ms Louise Riordan (Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Univeristy College Cork)

PhD Candidate: Ms Daire Buckley, 'Developing, implementing and testing solutions to disparities in the experience and clinical outcome of maternity care for women from Migrant and Ethnic Minority (M&EM) backgrounds in Cork, Ireland'

Supervisory Team: Professor John R. Higgins (Supervisor), Professor John Browne (Supervisor), Dr Paul Corcoran (Supervisor), Dr Gillian Maher (Supervisor), Dr Laura Cronin (Advisor)

Contact LCronin@ucc.ie for further information.