Perspectives of Maternal Mortality Among Women Who Live in Indiana.

Objective: To explore the perspectives of women in the lay public in Indiana on the topic of maternal mortality.
Design: Qualitative descriptive design.
Setting: The state of Indiana.
Participants: Women in the lay public (N = 20) who were recruited from Facebook groups aimed at women with children.
Methods: We used semistructured phone interviews during which participants described their understanding of maternal mortality and their related experiences. We analyzed the transcribed interviews using content analysis to yield overall themes.
Results: We identified three main themes that described participants' perspectives of maternal mortality: Women Are Not Worried About Mortality Until They Experience Pregnancy Complications, Women Have Limited Information on Maternal Mortality, and Women Often Feel Dismissed During Maternity Care.
Conclusion: Our findings suggest that nurses and other health care providers should increase their efforts to effectively communicate about maternal mortality and the associated risk factors and to follow evidence-based guidelines for respectful maternity care.
(Copyright © 2022 AWHONN, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)