The Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (ISPUP) is part of the European project Improving MAternal Newborn CarE in the EURO Region – IMAGINE EURO, which is collecting data on the quality and resilience of the maternal and newborn health services that ensure maternal and child health care among countries of the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At this stage, the project is asking mothers who have given birth since 1 March 2020 to complete an online questionnaire. The project intends to help identify gaps and plan responses to improve the preparation and resilience of health services, as well as the quality of care provided to mothers and newborns.
Raquel Costa, a researcher at ISPUP, and responsible for the coordination of IMAGINE EURO in Portugal, explains: “we will examine the preparation, quality and resilience of the maternal and newborn health services among countries of the WHO European Region during the COVID-19 pandemic, through the perspectives of both women who have given birth and health professionals”.
Researchers from several countries are, in a first stage, inviting women who gave birth, from 1 March on, to answer an online questionnaire, available in more than 20 languages. In a second stage, health professionals will be invited to complete an online questionnaire.
Want to participate?
The Portuguese version of the online questionnaire for mothers is now available, HERE.
“All mothers, aged 18 and over, from anywhere in the country, regardless of whether or not they have been diagnosed with COVID-19, can participate, if their delivery occurred anytime after 1 March 2020”, emphasizes Raquel Costa.
“The collaboration of these mothers is essential for us to be able to assess the quality of maternal and child health care provided during the COVID-19 pandemic in Portugal”, she stresses.
The questions asked are based on WHO standards to improve the quality of the hospital care provided to mothers and newborns, and cover aspects related to the type of care that is provided by health services: experience regarding the care received; availability of human and physical resources in the obstetrics and neonatology units of hospitals; and a section on COVID-19.
Identifying gaps and planning responses
The international project, coordinated by the WHO Collaborating Center of the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo Trieste (Italy), under the responsibility of Maria Lazzerini, will make it possible to detect any differences in the level of preparation, quality and resilience of services and in the care provided, among the various countries of the WHO European Region participating.
The project intends to help identify gaps and plan a coordinated response across countries to improve the quality of care provided to mothers and newborns. The results of the project will be disseminated to health organizations, so that they can act in an informed manner, with a view to achieve the WHO vision: “where every pregnant woman and newborn receives quality care throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period”.
In Portugal, in addition to ISPUP, partners of IMAGINE EURO include ARS Algarve, the Universidade Europeia and the Associação Portuguesa pelos Direitos da Mulher na Gravidez e no Parto.
For more information about IMAGINE EURO, see LINK.
