Exploring Quality of Maternal and Newborn Care in Palestine (EqualMatPal)

This PhD project will utilize mixed methods to explore the quality of care provided to new mothers and their newborn children in Palestine, guided by the Quality Maternal and Newborn Care Framework (QMNCF). The study will also assess the validity and reliability of an Arabic version of the QMNCF-index, thus facilitate similar studies in the region.

This research project will explore the quality of Palestinian maternal and newborn care in the governmental sector in the West Bank by conducting three independent quantitative and qualitative studies.

The first study will explore maternal health care provider’s views on how they perceive the quality of governmental care.

The second study will validate an Arabic version of the Framework for Quality maternal and Newborn Care - QMNC (qmnc.org).

The third study will explore new mothers experience and view of the care they have received during pregnancy, labor and the postnatal period.    

The studies will help get a deeper knowledge of the gaps and challenges to inform policymakers, stakeholders, and funders of what is needed to improve the services.

Further, validating the QMNCF-index in Arabic has potential to contribute beyond Palestine to other Arabic-speaking countries where there has been little research on quality of maternity care.

The overall objective of this research project is to contribute to improved maternal and newborn health by thoroughly exploring the quality of maternal and newborn care in the West Bank, Palestine.

The project is a part of NORHEDII, the project MIDRED at OsloMet (uni.oslomet.no).