Due, C.Walsh, M.Aldam, I.Winter, A.Cooper, S.Sheriff, J.Ziersch, A.2025-07-232025-07-232022BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 2022; 22(1):628-1-628-121471-23931471-2393https://hdl.handle.net/2440/146258Background: Experiences with healthcare services, including perinatal healthcare services, contribute to psychological wellbeing for refugees post-resettlement. To address the paucity of literature examining the relationship between perinatal healthcare and psychological wellbeing in women with refugee backgrounds from African countries this study aimed to: (1) understand the relationship between psychological wellbeing and perinatal care amongst this population, and; (2) identify areas for improved perinatal healthcare services to ensure positive wellbeing outcomes in this population. Methods: A total of 39 participants were included in the study. Nineteen women from seven African countries participated in interviews – seven both prior to and after having their babies, two only while pregnant and ten only after their baby had been born. In addition, interviews were conducted with 20 service providers. Interviews were thematically analysed. Results: Four key themes were identified, covering continuity of care, cultural safety of care, agency in decision making, and ongoing impacts of perinatal care experiences. Conclusions: The results highlighted the need for changes to perinatal healthcare provision at the systems level, including implementing a continuity of care model, and ensuring women’s access to individualised, trauma-informed perinatal services which attend to the cultural and psychosocial resettlement needs of this population. These findings informed recommendations for improving perinatal healthcare services and better psychological outcomes – and in turn broader health outcomes – for African-background refugee mothers.en© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.Refugees; Perinatal care; Africa; Wellbeing; Maternity; PregnancyHumansPerinatal CareMothersPregnancyParturitionQualitative ResearchChildInfant, NewbornRefugeesFemalePerinatal care for women with refugee backgrounds from African countries: a qualitative study of intersections with psychological wellbeingJournal article10.1186/s12884-022-04957-9618587Due, C. [0000-0001-6485-6076]Winter, A. [0000-0002-1106-2085]