Supporting engagement with and access to maternity services

Welcome to the Supporting Engagement with and Access to Maternity Services (SEAMS) study webpage. Here you will find a host of information about this ongoing study. This webpage will be updated regularly, so please check back for project updates.

This study hopes to better understand the barriers that pregnant women and people on low income experience when trying to access maternity care. When we have understood these, we will work to identify solutions to these barriers to enable better access to maternity care for pregnant women and people living on low income.

When we say the term low income we mean those who identify as living in a household with an income below 60% of the current median household income, taking into account the number of people living in the household.

For Professionals

We plan to speak to professionals (for example, healthcare professionals/midwives/health visitors, and those working in the voluntary and community sector) who work with pregnant women and people living on low incomes. We hope these conversations will help us better understand professional’s thoughts and perspectives of the challenges pregnant women and people living on low incomes experience when accessing maternity care.

Please click the box below for more information for Professionals or if you would like to take part.

For pregnant women and people

We will also speak to pregnant women and people who live on low incomes (and their partner if they have one, and would like them to be involved). We would like to hear about pregnant women and people living on low incomes experiences of accessing maternity care. These conversations will help us better understand the challenges faced, and help us find solutions to make it easier to access maternity care.

We would also like for pregnant women and people living on low incomes, who have accessed maternity care at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Foundation Trust, to complete a survey, on how much it cost to access their maternity care (for example, to attend for scan appointments). Questions will ask how much travel cost, how much parking cost etc.

Please click the box below for more information for pregnant women and people or if you would like to take part.

Resources

• Recommendations for practitioners
• Recommendations for policy makers

Related news and blogs

Barriers to accessing maternity care in England

Public involvement and community engagement within the SEAMS study