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More than 20 countries, two online surveys and a single goal: to explore the quality of maternal and neonatal health services within the WHO European Region during the COVID-19 pandemic.
How was this project born?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the organization and quality of maternal-neonatal care in maternity hospitals, although to date there is still a paucity of comparable data on the subject, some preliminary studies have found extreme heterogeneity in the practices implemented in several countries of the WHO European Region, as well as within individual states, during the pandemic. Among the crucial aspects that emerged are the interruption of some essential services, limitations in access to care and in the respect of the rights of pregnant women (for example the lack of a trusted person during childbirth or limitations in mother-infant skin to skin contact) and diversity in following specific recommendations from WHO and other scientific societies regarding breastfeeding support practices.
The WHO Collaborating Center (WHO CC) has been an Italian reference point for over 20 years for assessing the quality of maternal-neonatal care. In 2016, It helped to develop the WHO Standards for Improving the Quality of Maternal and Neonatal Care and subsequently (2016-2020) conducted two projects aimed at promoting the use of the WHO Standards in Italy. These projects represented an opportunity to develop validated skills and tools to investigate and improve the quality of maternal-neonatal care.
With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO CC, in collaboration with other European Partners, created the IMAgiNE EURO project which represents an international extension of previous research projects conducted at the regional level.
What are the objectives of the project?
The aim of the IMAgiNE EURO project is to improve the quality of maternal-neonatal care in the countries of the WHO European Region (currently 53 countries) thus increasing the satisfaction of women and healthcare professionals.
The specific objectives of the project are:
– collect information relating to key indicators of the quality of care (as per the WHO Standard) through two complementary sources: the experiences reported by women and the perception of healthcare professionals in the 53 member states of the WHO European region;
– use the collected data to develop appropriate health policies;
– advocacy of the rights of pregnant women, the knowledge and application of the WHO Standards for the Improvement of the Quality of Maternal-Neonatal Care and the strengthening of the skills of healthcare professionals;
– consolidate a research network, on the quality of maternal and child care in the countries of the WHO European Region.
How is the quality of care assessed and the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the health system?
IMAgiNE EURO provides two online surveys based on the WHO Standards for the Improvement of the Quality of Maternal and Neonatal Care:
1. a questionnaire is dedicated to the collection of experiences lived by women during birth;
2. a questionnaire dedicated to collecting the perceptions of the healthcare professionals involved in maternal-neonatal care.
Both questionnaires were translated and made available in numerous languages.
IMAgiNE EURO and the countries of the WHO European Region
