Sustainable Rural Maternity Care: A Comprehensive Approach to Program Planning
August 2005-December 2007
Research Team
- Principal Investigators: Jude Kornelsen and Stefan Grzybowski
- Support Team: Shelagh Levangie, Kate LeBlanc, Lana Sullivan, Evelyn Eng
Funding Agencies
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute
Communities
- Masset/Old Masset, Queen Charlotte City/Skidegate, Bella Coola
Project Summary
The goal of this project is to support the community-based development of a sustainable model of rural maternity service that meets the needs of women, families & communities, care providers, and administrators/decision-makers. Using a Logic Model framework, the research team has engaged multiple stakeholders in in-depth interviews, focus groups and community forums to learn of their perceptions around maternity services in their communities.
Specific objectives include:
- identifying resources (human, community, organizational) both currently applied to supporting local pregnant women and needed to support birth within the community;
- identifying activities (processes, events, technology and actions) both currently undertaken with local pregnant women and needed to support birth within the community;
- identifying products (types, levels and targets of services) necessary to support local maternity care;
- identifying micro-changes (in behaviour, knowledge, skills and status) of key stakeholders necessary to support local maternity care;
- identifying macro-changes (organizationally, community or systems-based) anticipated as a result of local maternity service delivery; and
- identifying assumptions (principles, beliefs and ideas) about current and possible maternity care delivery systems for women within the community.
Project Update
Phase I of the project involved data collection in the three communities through interviews and focus groups (January 2006). Phase II saw the research team return to the communities to present their findings in an interactive community-forum, where participants were encouraged to provide feedback and insights on research themes that emerged in the analysis of transcripts (June 2006).
Publications
Kornelsen, J. & Grzybowski, S. Cultures of Risk and Their Influence on Birth in Rural British Columbia. BMC Family Practice. In press.
Kornelsen, J., & Grzybowski, S. (2008). Obstetric services in small rural communities: What are the risks to care providers? Rural and Remote Health, 8 (2), 943-954.
Maternity Care in Bella Coola: Barriers and Solutions to Local Sustainability, edited by the Centre for Rural Health Research, October 2008.
Haida Gwaii: Maternity Care: Summary of a Study of Local Birthing Services, edited by the Centre for Rural Health Research, 2009.