gms | German Medical Science

Background: Refugee women face specific barriers to accessing perinatal healthcare in Switzerland. This raises questions regarding the measures to be taken in order to meet the healthcare needs of refugee women. To develop needs-based solutions, research on the perspectives of those affected is called for. There is a substantial lack of access to family planning and contraception counselling services in Switzerland, especially for marginalized persons such as women seeking asylum. The ongoing research project “Refugee Women’s Perspectives on Access to Family Planning and Contraception in Switzerland” uses semi-structured interviews to assess the needs, experiences, and perspectives of Arabic-speaking refugee women seeking asylum in Switzerland. The principal investigator’s Arabic language skills enable better access to the target group and help to build trust with interview participants. In addition, an intercultural interpreter participates in the interviews to ensure nothing is lost in translation. In a first step, a pilot project was conducted to answer methodological questions regarding intercultural interpretation in a qualitative research project, which resulted in an extended role for the interpreter, who is now a collaborator in the project. Thanks to this extended role, the project now also benefits from the interpreter’s specific intercultural knowledge regarding revision of the aims, the generation of the interview guide, transcription of the interviews, and data analysis. Furthermore, her participation in the cyclical-iterative research process and her work are thus made visible.

Aim: Interpreters’ varying competences and roles have an important impact on intercultural qualitative studies, but their work often remains unacknowledged. Methodological considerations regarding the role of interpreters in research processes enhance the quality of studies. There are calls for systematic incorporation of interpreting as a visible and integrative part of intercultural research.

Methods: In the presentation, examples and quotes from the research project will be used to open up a discussion on methodological questions such as,

1.

to what extent does an extended and participatory role of interpreters have a positive impact on qualitative research, and

2.

which challenges arise during implementation and how can they be met?

Results: A pilot phase of the research project “Refugee Women’s Perspectives on Access to Family Planning and Contraception in Switzerland” served to examine how a “hard-to-reach group” may be accessed as well as important considerations regarding data collection on the sensitive topic of sexual health. The close and extended cooperation between the principal investigator and the intercultural interpreter proved to be crucial to the collection of valid data and is discussed in the pilot report.

Relevance/Recommendation: Effective care concepts for perinatal healthcare services in the context of flight and migration should be based on the perspectives and needs of those affected. This presentation will illustrate how a qualitative research approach incorporating intercultural interpretation can contribute to evidence-based development of corresponding services.

Ethics and conflicts of interest: A vote on ethics was not necessary. The research was financed by own resources. There are no conflicts of interest.