Barrier-free communication in maternity care of allophone migrants: BRIDGE study protocol

Aim To describe communication and access barriers encountered by allophone women of different migration backgrounds in the Swiss maternity care services, from the perspective of users, health care professionals and intercultural interpreters. Background In addition to the challenges of maternal adjustment, pregnant migrant women must also deal with an unfamiliar health service system. Some must overcome language barriers and the stress of uncertain residence status. Limited access to maternity care increases perinatal morbidity and mortality. Almost 10% of foreigners speak none of Switzerland's official languages. Factors that facilitate or hinder communication between migrant women and perinatal health care professionals are under-studied and must be understood if we are to overcome those barriers in clinical practice. Design Qualitative exploratory study with quantitative sub-study. Methods Participants will be drawn from German-speaking regions of Switzerland. We will conduct focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with users in their own language (Albanian and Tigrinya) and with health care professionals and intercultural interpreters (March-June 2016), then perform Thematic Analysis on the data. In the sub-study, midwives will report their experience of using a telephone interpreting service during postnatal home visits in a questionnaire (October 2013-March 2016). Data will be analyzed with descriptive statistics. Discussion Our study will reveal patterns in communications between allophone migrant women and health care providers and communication barriers. By incorporating multiple perspectives, we will describe the challenges all parties face. Our results will inform those who draft recommendations to improve provision of maternity care to allophone women and their families. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.