Hall, JA;
Silverio, SA;
Barrett, G;
Memtsa, M;
Goodhart, V;
Bender‐Atik, R;
Stephenson, J;
(2021)
Women’s experiences of early pregnancy assessment unit services: A qualitative investigation.
BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology
, 128
(13)
pp. 2116-2125.
10.1111/1471-0528.16866.
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Abstract
Objective: To explore the experiences of women who had used an Early Pregnancy Assessment Unit [EPAU] service in the United Kingdom and make recommendations for their improvement. Design: Qualitative interview study. Setting: Early Pregnancy Assessment Units in the UK. Sample: A maximum variation sample of women who had consented to be interviewed having attended one of 26 EPAUs involved in the VESPA study in 2018. Methods: In-depth telephone interviews with 38 women. A thematic framework analysis was conducted, with a focus on how experiences varied according to EPAU service configuration and clinical pathway. Main Outcome Measures: Women’s experiences of EPAU services. Results: We found that EPAUs are highly valued, and women’s experiences were generally positive. However, women reported a range of issues that negatively affected their experience. These included difficulties accessing the service, insensitive management of the investigation and treatment options of pregnancy loss, poor communication, insufficient information, and a lack of support for their psychological health. These issues were not strongly associated with EPAU configuration or clinical pathway. Conclusions: Recommendations to improve women’s experiences include the separation of EAPUs from general maternity services, and we make suggestions on how to remove barriers to access by reviewing opening hours, provide sensitive patient management, such as automatically cancelling appointments and scans following pregnancy loss, and improve communication, both with women and their partners as well as with other parts of the health service.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Women’s experiences of early pregnancy assessment unit services: A qualitative investigation |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/1471-0528.16866 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1471-0528.16866 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021 The Authors. BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Early pregnancy, pregnancy loss, qualitative research, service evaluation, women's experiences |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL EGA Institute for Womens Health > Reproductive Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10133400 |
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