Friday, Oct 23 — Pavee Mothers, Traveller Brighter Beginnings and the Pave Point Roma Programme spoke at the 4th Annual Quality and Safety Conference, hosted by the HSE National Women and Infants Health Programme. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘Communication in Maternity Services’.
Valerie O’Leary, Gabi Muntean, Maria McDonnell, and Elizabeth McDonnell presented on Traveller and Roma women’s experiences of maternity care, barriers to access, experience and outcomes. They shared recommendations for more equitable and inclusive maternity services: stronger anti-racism measures, Ethnic Equality Monitoring, and ensuring Traveller and Roma women are explicitly included in national maternity policy.
Opening the conference this morning, there was a welcome emphasis from Minister for Health, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, on the importance of Ethnic Equality Monitoring, and her prioritising of outcome analysis and a national health service inclusive of ALL women.
Earlier today, a presentation from Anne Waithira Burke (AkiDwA · Migrant Women’s Health Coordinator) was particularly impactful in spelling out the barriers in accessing healthcare that ethnic minority women face, and the constitutive influence that social determinants of health have on health outcomes.
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