ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2026
Professional perspectives on barriers to accessing maternity care in England: a qualitative study.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bridging gaps in perinatal mental health services for socioeconomically disadvantaged women.Frontiers in global women's health · 2026Article
- Editorial: Addressing the maternity needs of newly settled migrant mothers.Frontiers in global women's health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWomen living on low income in England are at an increased risk of experiencing stillbirth, neonatal death, preterm birth, low birth weight and maternal mortality. Women with poor access to financial, educational, and social and health resources engage less with health and care services throughout their pregnancy, due to social stressors, low health literacy, digital exclusion, lack of support, language barriers, transport difficulties, and stigma and judgement from healthcare professionals. Existing evidence documents the experiences of women facing socioeconomic disadvantage, little is known about how healthcare professionals understand and respond to these barriers. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore professionals' perceptions of the barriers pregnant women living on low income face when accessing maternity care.
methodsData were collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews with professionals (i.e., midwives, health visitors, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) practitioner) working in the NHS, local authority or VCSE organisations in the North East of England. Purposive snowballing sampling was used to recruit participants. Anonymised interview data was thematically analysed and incorporated Ecological Systems Theory (EST).
resultsSeventeen participants were interviewed (NHS maternity services n = 6; local authority n = 3 and VCSE n = 8). Data highlighted three interlinked levels of barriers that professionals perceived pregnant women living on low income experience accessing maternity care: structural, interactional and individual. Structural barriers included digital exclusion, language-related difficulties and service delivery challenges related to staffing shortages. Interactional barriers included limited social networks, lack of partner involvement, and experiences of racism and discrimination. Lastly, individual level challenges included cost of travel and other pregnancy-related costs, fear of professionals and unfamiliarity with services.
conclusionsFindings from this study present professionals' perspectives of the different challenges pregnant women living on low income face when accessing maternity care. These include language and communication, a lack of social support network, the cost and time of travel and the fear of professionals and unfamiliarity of service. Recommendations to improve access to maternity services include the implementation of recycled smart phones, the use of digital translation apps within appointments and the use of pre-paid travel vouchers.
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.