What are the lived experiences of ethnic minority women regarding maternity care in the United Kingdom? A systematic review.

Background: In the United Kingdom, ethnic minority women are significantly more likely to experience severe complications related to maternity care compared to their white counterparts, underscoring a critical need for targeted research into the systemic inequities affecting their healthcare outcomes. Methods: This systematic review aimed to synthesise the existing literature to gain insights into ethnic minority women’s maternity care experience, focusing on its impact on their health outcomes and satisfaction levels. Results: This systematic review of qualitative studies was conducted through searches in databases such as PubMed, Science Direct, MIDIRIS, and CINAHL. The focus of the search was based on the literature from 2016, considering the Better Births initiative. The inclusion criteria was all studies that touch on the antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal care of ethnic minority women in the UK. Conclusions: Findings have shown that individualised maternity care is one of the primary factors helping ethnic minority women increase their experience of receiving maternity services. Adapting maternal services and being flexible enough to respond to the diversity of needs will be valuable in avoiding inequity and improving the quality of care. Therefore, there is a need for an in-depth study to explore the impact of individualised maternity care on ethnic minority women.