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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kerry Brennan-ToveyORCiD, Dr Kausiki Sarma, Dr Dafni Lima, Professor Nicola HeslehurstORCiD, Dr Ryc AquinoORCiD, Professor Judith RankinORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).
© 2026. The Author(s). BACKGROUND: Women living on low income in England are at an increased risk of experiencing stillbirth, neonatal death, preterm birth, low birth weight and maternal mortality. Women with poor access to financial, educational, and social and health resources engage less with health and care services throughout their pregnancy, due to social stressors, low health literacy, digital exclusion, lack of support, language barriers, transport difficulties, and stigma and judgement from healthcare professionals. Existing evidence documents the experiences of women facing socioeconomic disadvantage, little is known about how healthcare professionals understand and respond to these barriers. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore professionals' perceptions of the barriers pregnant women living on low income face when accessing maternity care. METHODS: Data were collected through one-to-one semi-structured interviews with professionals (i.e., midwives, health visitors, Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) practitioner) working in the NHS, local authority or VCSE organisations in the North East of England. Purposive snowballing sampling was used to recruit participants. Anonymised interview data was thematically analysed and incorporated Ecological Systems Theory (EST). RESULTS: Seventeen participants were interviewed (NHS maternity services n = 6; local authority n = 3 and VCSE n = 8). Data highlighted three interlinked levels of barriers that professionals perceived pregnant women living on low income experience accessing maternity care: structural, interactional and individual. Structural barriers included digital exclusion, language-related difficulties and service delivery challenges related to staffing shortages. Interactional barriers included limited social networks, lack of partner involvement, and experiences of racism and discrimination. Lastly, individual level challenges included cost of travel and other pregnancy-related costs, fear of professionals and unfamiliarity with services. CONCLUSIONS: Findings from this study present professionals' perspectives of the different challenges pregnant women living on low income face when accessing maternity care. These include language and communication, a lack of social support network, the cost and time of travel and the fear of professionals and unfamiliarity of service. Recommendations to improve access to maternity services include the implementation of recycled smart phones, the use of digital translation apps within appointments and the use of pre-paid travel vouchers.
Author(s): Brennan-Tovey K, Sarma K, Lima D, Ayorinde A, Brown H, Esan OB, Gardiner D, Kipping R, Heslehurst N, Aquino MRJ, Rankin J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth
Year: 2026
Volume: 26
Online publication date: 10/02/2026
Acceptance date: 29/01/2026
Date deposited: 13/04/2026
ISSN (electronic): 1471-2393
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-026-08745-7
DOI: 10.1186/s12884-026-08745-7
Data Access Statement: The datasets generated and analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the sensitivity of the topics discussed within the data but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
PubMed id: 41668044
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