Transcultural approaches to midwifery care

This paper is an exploratory investigation into Leininger's transcultural theory and its applicability to three groups of pregnant women. A small sample comprising of 19 Islamic Lebanese-born women, 18 Islamic Turkish-born women and 20 Australian-born women were included in the study. The Prenatal Needs Instrument (PNI) revealed a rich source of needs and beliefs of the women in this study during their prenatal period. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were included in the PNI and interpreters were used to interview the women. There was some limited support for the efficacy of Leininger's theory, although due to the small sample size, caution should be exercised with generalising to other populations.