Page 119 - Petelin, Ana, ur. 2024. Zdravje delovno aktivnih in starejših odraslih / Health of Working-Age and Older Adults. Zbornik povzetkov z recenzijo ▪︎ Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press

Perinatal health care: women’s experiences in Slovenia and selected
European countries

Anja Bohinec, Zalka Drglin
National Insitute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Introduction: Women’s experiences of maternity care are of paramount importance, as
they can empower them or cause harm, negative experiences or even trauma, there-
fore efforts to provide quality, respectful and evidence-based perinatal care are es-
sential. The international IMAgiNE EURO survey focuses on the quality of maternal
and newborn care in maternity hospitals. We present and compare the results from
selected European countries of the cross-sectional IMAgiNE EURO study, which ex-
plores women’s experiences of perinatal care in maternity hospitals.
Methods: Data were collected using a structured online questionnaire based on 40
quality measures based on the World Health Organization’s document - Standards for
Improving the Quality of Maternal and Newborn Care in Health Facilities, 2016. The ques-
tionnaire includes 4 categories: provision of care, experience of care, availability of hu-
man and other resources; an additional domain includes key organisational changes
during the covid-19 pandemic. Each category covers 10 quality indicators that make up
an overall index of quality of perinatal care for mothers and newborns - Quality of Ma-
ternal and Newborn Care Index (QMNC), which has a maximum value of 400 points.
We present reports from women in 12 European countries who gave birth between
1 March 2020 and 15 March 2021, with a focus on the experiences of Slovenian wom-
en. The Slovenian sample includes 2.092 women and the total sample 21.027 women.
Results: According to the Quality of Maternal and Newborn Care Index, Slovenia ranks
in the middle of the 12 participating countries with 320 points. The highest QMNC In-
dex is achieved by Luxembourg - 355, and the lowest by Serbia - 205. In some aspects
of perinatal care, we achieve good results, but in some aspects, improvements are
needed, especially in relation to mothers’ autonomy, respect, emotional and practical
support. More than half (51.6%) of Slovenian women report that they could not move
freely during childbirth, in Norway, only 7.9% of women reported this. 61.6% of Slove-
nian women report that they did not have a free choice of birth position during vagi-
nal birth, this is reported by 32.4% of women in Italy. 29.8% of women who gave birth
in Slovenia report that they did not receive emotional support; 30.6% of them report problemi, izzivi in priložnosti na področju zdravja ... | concerns, challenges and opportunities in the health ...
that they were not involved in decisions concerning themselves. Overall, the survey
results indicate large inequalities in the quality of perinatal care in the European Region
of the World Health Organization.
Discussion and conclusion: Slovenia perform well in some areas, however there are de-
ficiencies and room for improvement in other areas of perinatal care in maternity hos-
pitals. These gaps need to be recognised, monitored and addressed as well as appro-
priate strategies need to be implemented to improve perinatal care for women and
newborns. Addressing the quality of perinatal health care is important from the per-
spective of the health and well-being of the population as a whole, as the experience
of childbirth can have a significant impact on an individual’s life from the very begin-
ning of (family) life.
Keywords: maternity care, woman giving birth, birth experience

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