Cultural Brokering in Pregnancy Care: A Qualitative Study

Cultural brokers bridge cultural and linguistic differences between patients and healthcare teams, but their role in pregnancy care is not well understood. We aimed to identify and describe the roles cultural brokers fulfill throughout pregnancy care, moments of impact when they enhance care for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP), and how to integrate cultural brokering into pregnancy care teams.

We conducted a descriptive qualitative study nested within a human centered design process. We conducted 21 semi-structured, qualitative interviews among Spanish-speaking pregnancy care patients with LEP, cultural brokers, and pregnancy care clinicians in the Boston metropolitan area between December 2022 and May 2023. Data were coded and analyzed using qualitative content analysis to summarize themes about cultural brokering within pregnancy care. Data were used to create a journey map of an illustrative pregnancy experience.

Cultural brokers played five key roles in pregnancy care for Spanish-speaking patients with LEP: cultural bridging, language support, social support, health system navigation, and advocacy. The journey map highlighted moments of impact when cultural brokers enhanced patient care: connecting patients to care, meeting the care team, making informed decisions, connecting to resources, childbirth, and transitioning to parenthood. Most participants wanted cultural brokers to be integrated into pregnancy care teams to diversify teaming and enable shared decision-making; however, additional training, clarifying cultural broker roles, and adequate compensation for cultural brokers would be needed to achieve integration.

Cultural brokers fulfill a critical role during pregnancy care for patients with LEP. However, more work is needed to recognize, value, and integrate cultural brokering into pregnancy care.