Navigating Cultures : A Literature Review of Immigrant Mothers' Experiences in Maternity Healthcare

As the foreign population in Finland grows, it will impact the health care services and require healthcare workers to have a greater understanding of intercultural care. Immigrant mothers’ cultures reflect their own attitudes, values and beliefs in regards to pregnancy and birth. Healthcare professionals need to be aware of these cultural influences with regards to pregnancy, birth and parenting. This research reviews existing literatures to understand the experiences of immigrant mothers in maternity care. The results of this research provides insight into the aspects of the prenatal, postnatal and post-delivery care services that serve immigrant patients and their families well and the areas that need further development. The method of this study is a literature review. Eight articles dated from 2007-2016 were selected from CINAHL and PubMed. Content analysis was used to analyze our data. The following four major categories emerged from the findings: communication, culture and religion, isolation, healthcare services and interventions. There were mixed reviews in the research papers on whether the overall experiences of the immigrant mothers were positive or negative. Based on our findings, we made recommendations that can be implemented in the Finnish maternity healthcare system. With the influx of refugees and asylum seekers arriving to Finland, the results of the study may provide beneficial information regarding transcultural care to health care providers working within prenatal clinics, maternity wards, and other facilities providing prenatal, postnatal and post delivery services for immigrant mothers