Providers' Perspectives of a Culturally Adapted CenteringPregnancy Intervention for Marshallese Women in Arkansas

Abstract

Objective: To explore health care providers' perspectives on the successes, challenges, and suggestions for future directions regarding the implementation of CenteringPregnancy for Marshallese women in Arkansas.

Design: A descriptive qualitative design was used as an exploratory method.

Setting/local problem: This study took place in northwest Arkansas. Arkansas is home to the largest Marshallese Pacific Islander population in the United States. Marshallese Pacific Islanders residing in the United States have disproportionally high rates of poor maternal and infant health outcomes, even compared to other Pacific Islanders.

Participants: Seven CenteringPregnancy providers from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest.

Intervention/measurements: Individual interviews were conducted from February to March of 2023. Data were managed using MAXQDA12 software. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Initial coding was completed to identify each data segment with short summations of emergent themes. The focused thematic codes that emerged were used to identify and develop the most salient thematic categories of the data, which became the thematic codes.

Results: Three overarching themes emerged: Implementation Successes, Challenges to Implementation, and Future Suggestions to Improve Implementation and Sustainability. Each theme had representative subthemes.

Conclusion: Findings provide insight for future implementation of CenteringPregnancy for Marshallese and other Pacific Islander individuals.

Keywords: CenteringPregnancy; Marshallese; Pacific Islander; culturally adapted interventions; group prenatal care; health care providers.