ReviewHealth expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy2002
Improving communication between health professionals and women in maternity care: a structured review.
Review in Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy, 2002. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 100 citations in OpenAlex.
- Patient-clinician communication amongst black perinatal people: a systematic review.Archives of women's mental health · 2025Pooled it
- Interventions to support effective communication between maternity care staff and women in labour: A mixed-methods systematic review.Midwifery · 2018Pooled it
- Implementation strategies for health systems in low-income countries: an overview of systematic reviews.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2017Pooled it
- Facilitators and barriers to quality of care in maternal, newborn and child health: a global situational analysis through metareview.BMJ open · 2014Pooled it
- A systematic review of decision support needs of parents making child health decisions.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2008Pooled it
- The impact of gestational diabetes mellitus on perceived mother-infant bonding: a qualitative study.Journal of reproductive and infant psychology · 2025Article
- Understanding women's care experiences in public health facilities in a conflict-affected area of Nigeria.PLOS global public health · 2025Article
- Health literate-sensitive shared decision-making in maternity care: needs for support among maternity care professionals in the Netherlands.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2023Article
- A qualitative exploration of autistic mothers' experiences I: Pregnancy experiences.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2023Article
- Assessment of the Quality of Obstetric Services From the Perspective of Maternity Patients and Service Providers in a Tertiary Care Obstetric Unit in Lithuania.Health services insights · 2023Article
- Strategies to improve interpersonal communication along the continuum of maternal and newborn care: A scoping review and narrative synthesis.PLOS global public health · 2023Article
- Use of a mHealth System to Improve Antenatal Care in Low and Lower-Middle Income Countries: Report on Patients and Healthcare Workers' Acceptability in Tanzania.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- A Psychoeducational Intervention in Prenatal Classes: Positive Effects on Anxiety, Self-Efficacy, and Temporal Focus in Birth Attendants.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Barriers to and facilitators of effective communication in perinatal care: a qualitative study of the experiences of birthing people with sensory, intellectual, and/or developmental disabilities.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2022Article
- Woman's Needs and Satisfaction Regarding the Communication with Doctors and Midwives during Labour, Delivery and Early Postpartum.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Intersections between patient-provider communication and antenatal anxiety in a public healthcare setting in Pakistan.PloS one · 2021Article
- Do health care providers give sufficient information and good counseling during ante-natal care in Lao PDR?: an observational study.BMC health services research · 2019Observational
- Women's experiences of maternity care in England: preliminary development of a standard measure.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2019Article
- An Innovative Mobile Health System to Improve and Standardize Antenatal Care Among Underserved Communities: A Feasibility Study in an Italian Hosting Center for Asylum Seekers.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2018Article
- Working Towards Safe Motherhood: Delays and Barriers to Prenatal Care for Women in Rural and Peri-Urban Areas of Georgia.Maternal and child health journal · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo review trials of the effectiveness of interventions aimed at improving communication between health professionals and women in maternity care. SEARCH STRATEGY: The electronic databases Medline, PsycLit, The Cochrane Library, BIDS Science and Social Science Indexes, Cinahl and Embase were searched. Final searches were carried out in April 2000. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Controlled trials of interventions explicitly aimed at improving communication between health professionals and women in maternity care were included. Other trials were included where two reviewers agreed that this was at least part of the aim. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: 95 potentially eligible papers were identified, read by one reviewer and checked against the inclusion criteria. The 11 included trials were read, assessed for quality and summarized in a structured tabular form.
resultsThe included trials evaluated interventions to improve the presentation of information about antenatal testing, to promote informed choice in maternity care, woman-held maternity records and computer-based history taking. Four trials in which women were provided with extra information about antenatal testing in a variety of formats suggested that this was valued by women and may reduce anxiety. Communication skills training for midwives and doctors improved their information giving about antenatal tests. The three trials of woman-held maternity records suggested that these increase women's involvement in and control over their care.
conclusionsThe trials identified by this review addressed limited aspects of communication and focused solely on antenatal care. Further research is required in several areas, including trials of communication skills training for health professionals in maternity care and other interventions to improve communication during labour and in the postnatal period.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.