'Expecting and Connecting' Group Pregnancy Care: Evaluation of a collaborative clinic

Establishment of a service to increase clinical placement opportunities for midwifery students in a regional area of Queensland, Australia with unknown impact on all service stakeholders.

Group antenatal care (known as Expecting and Connecting) was provided at the university campus, instigated collaboratively between the health service and university in response to population growth and student needs in a health service jurisdiction not otherwise serviced for public pregnancy care.

This study evaluated the 'Expecting and Connecting' Group Pregnancy Care service from the perspective of attending women, midwifery students and midwives.

Qualitative findings were obtained from mothers, midwives and midwifery students. The study was guided by Donabedian's conceptual framework to assess quality within a health service. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes and concepts from the data within the areas of structure, process and outcome.

Expecting and Connecting provided benefits to participants including an environment for students and pregnant women to build relationships to meet Continuity of Care requirements for students. Mothers reported high levels of satisfaction with antenatal care including the ability to develop peer support.

The collaborative facilitation of group antenatal care by university and health service midwives provided a catalyst to the development of peer support networks within the local community and enhance opportunity for midwifery student requirements.

The 'Expecting and Connecting' group antenatal care service was highly regarded by participant mothers, midwives and midwifery students and provided an additional source of midwifery student placement.