Understanding local themes for Black maternity service users booking late (over 16 weeks’ gestation)
Implementation
Between 2022 and 2023, we undertook a digital transformation, from paper maternity records to a digital solution called EPIC.
We sampled reports from electronic patient records (EPR) containing cross-site data of Black service users who booked over 16 weeks from June 2022 to December 2023. This produced a sample of 159 service users.
Sample inclusion:
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identified as Black African, Caribbean, or Black British at booking appointment with midwife
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recorded as being over 16 weeks pregnant at the initial booking appointment, based on last menstrual period (if known) or dating scan and a booking date between 2022 and 2023.
Sample exclusion:
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service users who identified as being from a White, Asian, or Mixed background, or ethnicity recorded as 'other'.
We also randomly sampled 50 service users from each year in 2022 and 2023 as a snapshot audit. The total sample size was 100 service users.
The local maternity and neonatal system (LMNS) manually audited the booking appointment summaries to gather rationales for late booking if the expected gestational age was over 16 weeks at the time of booking and completed a thematic analysis of the findings.
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