Addressing Obstetric Health Disparities among Refugee Populations: Training the Next Generation of Culturally Humble...

Issue: The burden of increasing obstetric morbidity and mortality in the United States disproportionately affects marginalized and vulnerable populations, including refugees. Many factors have been attributed to this disparity in birth outcomes, such as linguistic, cultural, and health system limitations. However, refugee health disparities have received little attention in the U.S., especially as it relates to the training of healthcare providers. Evidence: Poor obstetric outcomes among refugee communities have been historically attributed to delayed initiation of prenatal care, failure to detect co-morbidities, as well as higher rates of Cesarean sections in comparison to host-country mothers. These inequities are often linked to poor communication due to cultural misunderstandings, which ultimately leads to mistrust and reduced utilization of healthcare services. In 2017, a Midwest academic hospital, refugee community, and health system came together to form the Congolese Health Partnership (CHP). The CHP was formed to improve access to quality healthcare for expecting Congolese mothers and their families experiencing poor quality of obstetric care. Discussions that arose from this partnership identified issues of mistrust in healthcare providers within the community, worry about misjudgment and overuse of C-sections, and a lack of understanding about health insurance during pregnancy and childbirth. Therefore, it is apparent that understanding the contextual nuances that play a role in these poor outcomes among refugee communities in the U.S. is critical in order to narrow the healthcare gap. Implications: Since pregnancy and its surrounding events are intricately tied to the ways in which different societies define culture, we argue for a focus on culture when training future healthcare providers to work with refugees in the U.S. Specifically, we focus on the necessity of cultural humility, rather than cultural competence, when caring for obstetric patients from diverse backgrounds. Cultural humility forces providers to think about power imbalances that exist between a patient and provider when cultural differences exist. We describe specific barriers to care among Congolese refugees living in eastern Iowa and explore ways to utilize community-provider partnership and cultural humility training to address obstetric morbidity. Finally, we propose ways to incorporate cultural humility training among OB/GYN residents to address community-identified barriers to improve overall health outcomes locally with implications for refugee communities across the U.S.