Page 18 - Non-western women in maternity care in the Netherlands • Exploring ‘inadequate’ use of prenatal care and the experiences of care professionals

In a few c ases, midwives even expressed feelings of frustration and irritation along with feelings of fascination and interest.
Interesting, difficult. . . sometimes demanding, especially in terms of time and giving explanations. Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t want to miss it. Sometimes it frustrates me so much that I think, ‘My God, why am I working in a region like this [w ith a lot of migrant clients]’. But I think I’d be very unhappy if I wasn’t. In that sense, I am grateful. (R1)
Having a demanding but also rewarding job
When talking about the workload associated with non-western clients, a clear difference was noticed between practices with many non-western clients and those with just a few. Midwives working in urban practices with a lot of non-western clients indicated clearly that caring for some of these clients was very demanding. Some midwives working in rural areas with few non-western clients said the same, but reckoned it was manageable. They explained that the small number of non-western clients meant that the work was not experienced as very demanding, whereas it would have been if they had more non-western clients.
The main reasons mentioned by the midwives for the work being so demanding were the language barrier, a lack of knowledge of the Dutch maternity care system and the low socioeconomic status. A few midwives even felt that sometimes they were virtually in the role of a cleaning lady or police officer, as they sometimes had to do some cleaning at women’s home or had to be vigilant to make sure that additional examinations such as laboratory tests were conducted.
Although midwives experienced caring for non-western clients as demanding on the one hand, they also experienced caring for them as rewarding on the other. Several midwives said that satisfaction after caring for non-western clients was high, especially when they were able to solve problems encountered during maternity care.
She had given birth in the hospital, a short-stay hospital birth. The next day, I went for a postnatal checkup. She had not arranged maternity care assistance; the whole house was dirty and the child was lying on the floor. I then had to arrange everything: maternity care assistance and the general practitioner (GP). Social work too,
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Non-western women in maternity care in the Netherlands