Notes
Community organizations
NA
Integration timeline
At what point during the integration process the study was conducted?
NA
Key populations
Immigrant women; healthcare providers and stakeholders
Key findings
It was revealed that communication barriers, lack of information, lack of social support and isolation, cultural beliefs, inadequate healthcare services, and cost of medicines/services limited the access of immigrant women to maternity care.
Key recommendations
“The results of this study show that maternity care in Canada would be hugely improved if the following recommendations were executed by health policy makers: (1) health informational packages need to be developed in different languages and dispersed widely throughout local populations; (2) continuous cultural competence programs, with a focus on personalized women- centered care, need to be created, and healthcare professionals must be required to undertake these programs; (3) healthcare professionals must be recruited from diverse ethnocultural groups; and (4) adequate monitoring and evaluation programs for prevention of personal and systemic discrimination must be implemented” (p. 13).
Gaps identified
Immigrant women experience discrimination in receiving healthcare support — e.g., the IFH health insurance agency not accepting the claims, delay of payment by government and the time-consuming paperwork required, stereotyping, the types of food served in maternitywards and less focused postnatal care.