Women 's perception on the quality of maternal and newborn care during the COVID-19 pandemic in German-speaking countries: Findings from the IMAgiNE EURO project comparing data from Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

Problem: Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic compromised maternal and newborn care.
Background: Countries in the German speaking area share several clinical care guidelines but differed significantly in the strictness of COVID-19 protective measures.
Aim: To investigate the quality of maternal and newborn care (QMNC) during the COVID-19 pandemic in the German-speaking area and explore associations between the reorganisational changes due to COVID-19 and QMNC, as described with WHO Standards-based Quality Measures.
Methods: As part of the IMAgiNE EURO study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04847336), we conducted an online survey on the QMNC in the German-speaking area, including women who gave birth in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Descriptive statistics, Spearman rank correlation coefficient and multivariable quantile regression were used.
Findings: Out of a total of 70,721 women accessing the online questionnaire, 1,875 were included (Germany: n = 1,053, Switzerland: n = 494, Austria: n = 328). Significant differences across countries were found in Quality Measures. In Switzerland, women scored Quality Measures more favourable than in Germany and Austria in all four sub-indexes of QMNC. In Austria, Quality Measures gaps in the sub-index 'Experience of care' were higher. The sub-index 'Reorganisational changes due to COVID-19' correlated weakly to strongly with the other sub-indexes (between r = 0.33 and r = 0.62, p < 0.001 for all correlations).
Discussion: Midwives and other health professional should pay particular attention to the provision of respectful, high-quality care.
Conclusion: To effectively improve QMNC, further research is essential to monitor the quality of care and develop targeted interventions beyond the COVID-19 pandemic addressing inherent challenges in the organisation and delivery of care.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)