Opinion Pregnant women experiencing homelessness struggle to access healthcare

Rising homelessness in the UK1 poses serious challenges to health and wellbeing, with pregnant women representing a particularly vulnerable group. Key vulnerability factors such as socioeconomic and immigration status affect their access to healthcare services. Lack of healthcare increases immediate and long term health risks for mothers and their babies who require urgent and systemic support.1 Although existing government policies and guidelines recognise the role of homelessness in health, they often rely on assumptions and generalisations about the needs of this group. We urgently need government policies and healthcare system interventions founded on evidence based research. These need to be co-created with vulnerable groups and consider the diversity of their individual contexts, needs, and lived experiences