Midwives' perceptions of communication at antenatal care using a bilingual digital dialog support tool- a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND

Sweden has a large population of migrant women, which contributes to communication challenges and, consequently, suboptimal maternity care. Compared with native-born women, migrant women have an increased prevalence of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Miscommunication and language barriers are among the reasons for these results. Thus, language barriers can also lead to providing less information to migrant women. A digital Swedish-Arabic dialog support tool was developed and tested at antenatal care, to facilitate communication between midwives and Arabic-speaking women. This study aimed to describe midwives' perceptions of communication via Swedish-Arabic dialog support (Sadima) in antenatal care.

METHODS

A qualitative study was conducted with 14 midwives in antenatal care with experience communicating using a Swedish-Arabic dialog support tool. The data were collected via semi structured individual interviews and were analyzed via phenomenographic analysis.

RESULTS

The analysis resulted in three categories: (1) Dialog support - the skill of constructing bridges, comprised the main finding that dialog support facilitated communication by providing a multimodal way of communication including intercultural evidence-based content;(2) Dialog support - challengingly implementing adaptive efficiency, represented the implementation of dialog support to be time-consuming and, eventually, time-efficient when midwives gained digital skills; and (3) Women and their partners - the ability to be empowered, included the main finding of increased women's empowerment and control over their lives by being less dependent on interpreters.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings contribute to the understanding of communication via dialog support based on midwives' experiences. This study highlights that communication via dialog support facilitates communication between midwives and Arabic-speaking women and enhances midwives' working conditions. Within our increasingly heterogeneous societies, health care could provide support for communication via digital dialog support that is women-centered and culturally sensitive to avoid misunderstandings and delayed or incorrect treatment of migrant women.