Background: Differences in reproductive health outcomes according to the mother's origins have been reported in Switzerland, for example, women from European countries and non-European countries. The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health has therefore called for specific Swiss-wide studies on migrant populations. This study explores the pregnancy and antenatal care experiences of Chinese migrants in Switzerland, intending to clarify their maternity care needs.
Methods: In-depth interviews of 14 Chinese mothers and 13 family members were conducted in Chinese or English and audio recorded. All audio-recordingswere transcribed verbatim. All Chinese transcripts were translated into English.Thematic analysis was performed with the assistance of the qualitative dataanalysis software, MAXQDA Analytics Pro 2020.
Results: Five themes were extracted from the transcripts: (1) Motivations andconcerns about having children, (2) The merits of the Swiss maternity caresystem, (3) The inconvenience and barriers of accessing Swiss maternity careservices, (4) Strategies to deal with the inconveniences of the Swiss maternitycare system, and (5) The need for culturally sensitive care.
Conclusions: The results of our study provide new knowledge and understandingof pregnancy experiences and antenatal care services of Chinese mothers andtheir families in Switzerland. Their unique positive experiences included: familyplanning, the continuity of maternity services, humane care with the privacyrespected, personalized sensitive care needs, preferences for female obstetriciansand obstetricians of Asian origin. Several barriers were highlighted, suchasinformation seeking difficulties, communication difficulties, and a rigidappointment system. Reducing barriers enabling access to maternity care serviceswithin the Swiss healthcare system is necessary to provide equal qualitymaternitycare for individuals, irrespective of their origins.