Ukrainian refugee women's experience with maternity care in Norway: A qualitative study

European countries have recently received many migrants from Ukraine. Women's life experiences and expectations shape their perception of maternity care and childbirth. Our study aimed to explore how newly arrived Ukrainian refugee women experience their maternity care in Norway.

Social media were used to recruit eight women meeting the criteria of being newly arrived Ukrainian refugee women. Semi-structured interviews, three face-to-face and five video-calls, were performed between December 2023 and January 2024. We used Braun and Clarke for thematic analysis.

Three main themes were identified: healthcare in country of origin, high-quality care in the new country, and challenges as a refugee. Women reported that in their home country, the cost of maternity care had a significant impact on the quality of care they received with a tendency toward overmedicalization, as access to certain services often depended on payment. Participants described instances of feeling disrespected by healthcare staff in their home country, in contrast to their experiences in Norway. Women reported that in Norway they experienced a high level of professionalism among healthcare staff and a well-functioning healthcare system with good physical conditions. Challenges that the women struggled with were communication and barriers to accessing services.

Being treated professionally and with respect played a central role in creating a positive experience and mitigated the negative experiences of problems with communication and navigation in an unfamiliar healthcare system. Future research could investigate the use of written information to aid migrants in understanding the maternity services and some of the vocabulary.