Practices of general practitioners in the follow-up of precarious pregnant patients: A qualitative study

Objective. - Socio-economic conditions are one of the critical factors of the health of pregnant women. However, precariousness remains poorly defined and detected by general practitioners because too few tools adapted to private practice are available. General practitioners, as the first point of contact for these patients and often the future doctors of the children to come, take charge of them or refer them to other practitioners. Their medical and social practices in this context are mostly undocumented. The purpose of this practice survey is to understand the underlying rationale and frame of reference according to which GPs identify precarious pregnant women and the way they take care of them. Method. - This is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews. They were thematically analyzed using the inductive method of grounded theorizing. Private general practitioners carrying out pregnancy follow-ups were enrolled via GP networks and then sampled according to the "respondent driven sampling". Results. - Twelve interviews were conducted between September 2020 and April 2021. The analysis led to explore 6 main themes, poverty identification, feelings about it, the care of precarious women and the attitude, resources and training of the GPs. Conclusion. - The definition of precariousness by GPs is directly linked to their own representation of it. They work in formal or informal networks to avoid being isolated in the care that they describe as complex. They feel the need for suitable training and information related to the support of these patients. (c) 2024 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights are reserved, including those for text and data mining, AI training, and similar technologies.