Measuring Person Centered Maternity Care for Women of Color
Socially-driven issues such as disrespect, abuse, and discrimination within the health care system play a significant role in how women of color experience, and therefore access, care during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum, which influences outcomes for mother and baby. Women of color have repeatedly described disrespectful care experiences, with loss of autonomy and self-determination. As we move from describing preterm birth disparities to action-based research, we need measurement tools that adequately capture the care experiences of women at most risk for preterm birth. We aim to 1) use community engaged approaches to adapt a quantitative scale to measure person-centered maternity care (PCMC) for women of color in the United States; and 2) describe the extent to which women in the study population are receiving PCMC. We will use a mixed-methods approach including qualitative interviews for developing and refining items and quantitative data for psychometric analysis.