Training healthcare professionals on perinatal care necessities of migrant women

Introduction: Migrant women are a vulnerable group with limited access to health services and face ineffective system response to their needs, especially during the perinatal period. Effectiveness of the training of healthcare professionals (HCPs) is vital in order to enhance the quality of migrant perinatal care offered in line with the ORAMMA (Operational Refugee and Migrant Maternal Approach) project’s guidelines and approach. Methods: 47 HCPs involved with migrant perinatal care in Greece were recruited in the ORAMMA project’s training. An evaluation questionnaire, especially developed, was completed pre- and post- training. Cultural competence, knowledge, skills and self-perceived cultural competence were evaluated to accelerate accurate application of the ORAMMA interventions. Results: Validated translation of relevant tools was used to identify critical divergence between pre- training and post-training scores. The questionnaires were completed pre- and post-training to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. The results indicated an increase in knowledge and self-perceived cultural competence whereas the attitude and skills scores improved slightly. Female healthcare professionals (e.g. midwives) could contribute to perinatal migrant’s needs-based assessment to establish capacity-building mechanisms with emphasis on women centered and compassionate-based primary healthcare (PHC) services. Conclusions: Despite the restricted number of participants, this pilot analysis indicates that the ORAMMA project could bridge over HCPs’ training with effective planning and implementation strategies to address and improve the quality of migrant perinatal health.