Engaging in partnerships is the key to preserving and creating a trustful collaboration with vulnerable families: A focus group study

Objective: Maternal vulnerability challenges parenthood and represents a critical task for health pro-fessionals working in postnatal care. Being born to a vulnerable mother may have wide-ranging effects on child development and carry the risks of impairment in cognitive performance, behavioural distur-bances and mental problems which may persist into late childhood and adolescence. It is vital to explore the perspectives of healthcare professionals who have experience of caring for vulnerable families at the obstetric department and in the transition to the primary healthcare sector to identify and describe po-tential barriers, challenges and the potential for any improvements in postnatal care.The aim of this study was to describe healthcare professionals' experience of vulnerable families and their extended stay at the obstetric department, and to describe the collaboration between the primary and the secondary healthcare sectors concerning postnatal care.Design and setting: A qualitative inductive descriptive design with focus group interviews was used for data collection.Two two-hour focus group interviews were conducted at a university hospital in the Capital Region of Denmark in February 2019. Participants and results: In total, 16 health professionals from the obstetric department and primary healthcare sectors participated. The overall theme found was Engaging in partnership across sectors and with families can improve post-natal care for vulnerable families. It emerged from three categories: 1) vulnerability as an individual per-ception, 2) communication and trust as essential competencies and 3) collaboration in a partnership. Conclusion and implications for practice: This study demonstrates the complexity and challenges of post-natal care provided to vulnerable families. It highlights the possibilities and benefits of engaging in part-nership across sectors and families to improve postnatal care for vulnerable families. Engaging in part-nerships improves the quality of the extended stay at the obstetric department and the transition to the primary healthcare sector.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )