Listening to What Matters

Understanding the experiences of refugee background parents
and perinatal health and social care professionals
during the COVID-19 pandemic

 

‘I am scared to go outside to my appointments…’

- Study Participant

 

What is the study about?

Listening to What Matters aims to understand the experiences of refugee background women and the health and social professionals caring for them during pregnancy and early parenthood during the COVID-19 pandemic in Melbourne, Victoria.

The Refugee and Migrant Research Program includes a team of bicultural Project Officers working across the following language and cultural groups: Afghan (speaking Dari); Assyrian-Chaldean (from Iraq and Syria); Karen (from Burma); Syrian and Iraqi (speaking Arabic), and; Sudanese and South Sudanese.

I was fearful of going to the hospital to have my baby, but I had no choice... I did not feel safe.... I was worried first for my baby, and then for myself, it is really scary

— Study Participant

What is already known?

The pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges for the entire Victorian community. Through the application of a health equity lens, it is apparent that some members of our community may experience greater challenges than others, including refugee background parents, and the health and social care professionals working with these families.

What the study adds

The knowledge generated by this phenomenological study will help to ensure our short-and-long term responses to the pandemic are informed by the needs of refugee background parents and the professionals caring for them.

Listening to What Matters is a collaboration between the MCRI Refugee and Migrant Research Program and the Victorian Foundation for the Survivors of Torture (Foundation House), and is funded by the North Western Melbourne Primary Health Network.

 

 

Listen to women’s stories

Where can I read more?

  • No one asked us: Understanding the lived experiences of midwives providing care in the north west suburbs of Melbourne during the COVID-19 pandemic: An interpretive phenomenology

    Hearn F, Biggs L, Wallace H, Riggs E. Women Birth.2022;35(5):447-57

    Read here

  • Perceptions and Experiences of Inequity for Women of Refugee Background Having a Baby during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Melbourne, Australia

    Hearn F, Brown SJ, Szwarc J, Toke S, Alqas Alias M, Essa M, Hydari S, Baget A, Riggs E. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2024;21(4):481

    Read here
Elisha Riggs

Who can I contact to find out more?

Laura Biggs

Laura Biggs
laura.biggs@mcri.edu.au
(03) 8341 6483