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Sarah Esegbona-Adeigbe

Award Received: 
Jean Davies Award
Project: 
Pursuing a qualitative study of migrant Nigerian mothers’ and midwives’ perceptions of cultural competency in antenatal care
Year awarded: 
2023

The Jean Davies Award for Inequalities in Maternity Care in collaboration with the RCM made a significant contribution to my PhD study on exploring migrant Nigerian mothers’ and midwives’ perceptions of cultural competency in antenatal care.

Increased maternal mortality of Black women in the UK has been an issue for more than two decades. Poor utilisation of antenatal care contributes to maternal mortality, with recent migration to the UK and possibly cultural influences impacting on antenatal attendance. This is a topic that deserves more research focus, ensuring that Black women’s perspectives of maternity care contributes to the current evidence.

It is known that Black women are underrepresented in healthcare research, meaning that they are under represented in healthcare policies. I was driven by a passion and my Black African heritage to research the issues surrounding Black maternal deaths.

However, fully funded PhDs that focus on these issues are scarce. Hence, my decision to travail this research journey independently, which meant having to seek a University that would accept my PhD proposal and self funding my studies.

I am very appreciative of the support from the Iolanthe Trust to support my final year of studies through tuition fees, transcription fees for interviews with mothers and focus groups with midwives and travel costs to two NHS Trusts.

My research findings show that migrant Nigerian women are not asked about their culture during routine antenatal care, they have to navigate pregnancy between two cultures and midwives’ ability to provide culturally competent antenatal care is influenced by personal, societal and organisational factors.

This study highlights the needs of migrant Black women during pregnancy and the challenges midwives face in reducing racial health disparities. I disseminated my PhD findings at the NHS Research and Vision seminar in February 2024 and my poster has been accepted by the Virtual Day of the Midwife conference on the 5th May 2024.

More studies exploring Black women’s maternity experiences in the UK is required, they are under represented in research, but they are ‘not hard to reach’ - we just have ‘to reach harder.’ My future plans are to disseminate my work even further via publication and social media platforms. Thank you, Iolanthe Midwifery Trust for your support.