Maternal Health Equity Toolkit for Anesthesia Providers: A Content Validity Study

The purpose of this toolkit is to minimize maternal health disparities by supplying obstetric anesthesia providers with evidence-based recommendations and resources that empower the provision of equitable analgesia and anesthesia. Toolkit development was accomplished through an extensive literature review and summary of evidence. The toolkit was critiqued by obstetric care experts for its relevancy, simplicity, clarity, and ambiguity. These data points were evaluated using a content validity index (CVI) process, yielding an overall CVI of 0.94. Three recommendations for improvement in obstetric analgesia and anesthesia care were identified. Recommendation 1 highlighted the need to proactively seek growth and improvement of care delivery through provider education, tracking anesthesia-specific parturient outcomes, and assessing parturient delivery experience. Recommendation 2 identified the need to strengthen parturient-provider relationships with communication, shared decision-making, and diversifying the anesthesia workforce. Recommendation 3 focused on multidisciplinary parturient management through rapid-response teams, performance of emergency drills, and implementation of crisis management checklists to standardize care. Overall, this validated toolkit offers obstetric anesthesia providers evidence-based recommendations and resources to support fair and effective pain relief and anesthesia.