PhD defence Evelien Cellissen

Keywords: Integrated maternity care, Women’s experiences, Quality of care, Care standard

"The Integrated maternity care standard in practice: Women’s and professionals’ experiences with the Dutch Integrated maternity care standard"

In the Netherlands, various maternity care professionals collaborate in providing care during pregnancy, birth and the postpartum period. The Dutch Integrated maternity care standard (2016) describes how this care can be organised in a coherent way around the woman. All maternity care professionals are expected to provide care in accordance with this standard. This thesis shows how the recommendations in the standard work in practice from two perspectives. From the perspective of care professionals, it investigated the extent to which they were able to establish a quality system that incorporated women’s experiences. Questionnaires were administered to care professionals and interviews were conducted. From the perspective of women, questionnaires were used to examine pregnant women’s experiences of autonomy, continuity and quality of care during pregnancy. The study also examined how recommendations from the standard were associated with these experiences and differences between care provided by primary care midwives and hospital-based care. Finally, in a literature study the concept of integrated maternity care was defined.

Click here for the live stream.