Concepts and Dimensions in Continuous Midwifery Care Models Based on the Experiences and Expectations of Stakeholders: A Meta-Synthesis

Context: Pregnant women’s have access to different models of care especially to those who provide continuous care and this is one of the recommendations of the world health organization (WHO) for promoting maternal health. Moreover, to provide adequate services in care models, the experiences and perceptions of mothers, providers of prenatal care, and other stakeholders should be taken into consideration..
A systematic meta-synthesis was carried out to inquire into the findings of some qualitative studies aimed to explore the concept and dimensions of continuous midwifery care including experiences, perspectives and perceptions of engaged people..
Data Sources: This study was the first step of an action research designed to develop a midwifery model of care. Qualitative research articles published between 2005 and 2015 on experiences, attitudes, expectations and opinions of stakeholders in models of midwifery care were collected from Google scholar, Elsevier, and PubMed databases..
Study Selection: Following the various stages of the scrutiny of the abstracts and contents of the collected articles, five faculty members finally selected 21 qualitative research articles as eligible for inclusion in the meta-synthesis..
The findings of meta-synthesis showed that continuous midwifery care for pregnant women as a highly important process revolves around at least five basic themes: continuity of care, compliance with needs satisfaction levels, regulation of care environment, and the philosophy of providing continuous care..
Given the importance of access to healthcare as a right for pregnant women and given the key role of continuous midwifery care in health promotion and maternal satisfaction, it is suggested based on the results of the study that rigorous local and national research in this area to be carried out so that adequate models of continuous midwifery care can be designed and implemented based on the findings..