Adversity, autonomy and agency: Maternity care experiences of refugees and asylum seekers in England and Wales

This proposed PhD aims to document maternal health outcomes, maternity care service utilisation, and care experiences of refugees and asylum seekers (RAS) in England and Wales and identify possible health inequalities. This is a mixed methods research project which will include: A) a quantitative component to describe RAS health outcomes and utilisation of maternity care services in comparison to other migrants and the general UK population using linked anonymised data. B) qualitative component (interviews with pregnant and postpartum RAS) examining maternity care experiences of pregnant and postpartum RAS, focusing on resources and strategies that may facilitate positive experiences of care, such as advocacy organizations. The key challenge will be identifying the population of interest (RAS), which will require data linkage between different datasets.