Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Mar 13;25(1):282.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-025-07368-8.

Midwives' perceptions of communication at antenatal care using a bilingual digital dialog support tool- a qualitative study

Dima Bitar  1   2 , Marie Oscarsson  3 , Emina Hadziabdic  4
Affiliations

Midwives' perceptions of communication at antenatal care using a bilingual digital dialog support tool- a qualitative study

Dima Bitar et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: Sweden has a large population of migrant women, which contributes to communication challenges and, consequently, suboptimal maternity care. Compared with native-born women, migrant women have an increased prevalence of adverse pregnancy outcomes. Miscommunication and language barriers are among the reasons for these results. Thus, language barriers can also lead to providing less information to migrant women. A digital Swedish-Arabic dialog support tool was developed and tested at antenatal care, to facilitate communication between midwives and Arabic-speaking women. This study aimed to describe midwives' perceptions of communication via Swedish-Arabic dialog support (Sadima) in antenatal care.

Methods: A qualitative study was conducted with 14 midwives in antenatal care with experience communicating using a Swedish-Arabic dialog support tool. The data were collected via semi structured individual interviews and were analyzed via phenomenographic analysis.

Results: The analysis resulted in three categories: (1) Dialog support - the skill of constructing bridges, comprised the main finding that dialog support facilitated communication by providing a multimodal way of communication including intercultural evidence-based content;(2) Dialog support - challengingly implementing adaptive efficiency, represented the implementation of dialog support to be time-consuming and, eventually, time-efficient when midwives gained digital skills; and (3) Women and their partners - the ability to be empowered, included the main finding of increased women's empowerment and control over their lives by being less dependent on interpreters.

Conclusions: The findings contribute to the understanding of communication via dialog support based on midwives' experiences. This study highlights that communication via dialog support facilitates communication between midwives and Arabic-speaking women and enhances midwives' working conditions. Within our increasingly heterogeneous societies, health care could provide support for communication via digital dialog support that is women-centered and culturally sensitive to avoid misunderstandings and delayed or incorrect treatment of migrant women.

Keywords: Antenatal care; Communication; Dialog support tool; Digital intervention; Migration.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was obtained from the Ethical Research Committee (Dnr 2021–04722), and the study was carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki [59]. The participants were informed that participation was voluntary and could withdraw without explanation. Confidentiality was assured. Written informed consent was obtained. Before the data analysis began, all the data were anonymized. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Clinical trial: This study is not a clinical trial, thus a clinical trial number is not applicable.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The Sadima website on the Arabic version of the information video (open access, https://sadima.lnu.se)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The outcome space. Three categories consisted of the varying perceptions experienced by midwives
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Nations U. Migration: Powerful driving force for growth and dynamism. 2024.
    1. About. migration [https://www.iom.int/about-migration]
    1. Befolkningsstatistik. [https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/statistik-efter-amne/befolkning/befol...]
    1. Invandring till Sverige [https://scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/manniskorna-i-sverige/i...]
    1. Essén B, Bödker B, Sjöberg N-O, Langhoff-Roos J, Greisen G, Gudmundsson S, Östergren P-O. Are some perinatal deaths in immigrant groups linked to suboptimal perinatal care services? BJOG: Int J Obstet Gynecol. 2002;109(6):677–82. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources