Abstract Background: The provision of low-risk obstetrics by family physicians (FPs) is declining, representing a concern for maternity care access. The poor retention of FPs in low-risk obstetrics has been linked to poor lifestyle, prompting the development of the family medicine obstetrics (FM-OB) shared-call group model to reduce call burden. This model yields high patient satisfaction despite the inability to predict who will attend each birth and reported concerns with having an unfamiliar physician. Accordingly, a Canadian FM-OB shared-call group created a quarterly prenatal labour and birth education session, titled “Meet the Doctors” (MTD) to enhance patient familiarity with all members of the group. Methods: The objectives of this two-phase mixed-methods study were to ascertain immediate session feedback and examine how the sessions relate to patient-provider encounters during birth; and explore patients’ personal narratives of how the MTD sessions are implicated in their birth experience. In Phase 1, we collected cross-sectional data from two online surveys distributed to pregnant MTD session attendants immediately after the session and months later in the postnatal period. Survey data were analyzed using basic descriptive statistics. In the second phase, we obtained qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with a sub-cohort of survey participants. Interview data were analyzed using basic thematic analysis. Findings from the surveys and interviews were interpreted together. Results: 43 participants completed the first survey, 22 were retained in the second survey, and most demonstrated a high level of satisfaction with the MTD sessions. Of the 17 postnatal survey respondents who reported having a different FM-OB physician attending their delivery than their prenatal FP, 59% recognized their new FM-OB provider from attending the session and 77% believed that the session increased their sense of preparedness for encountering a new FP during birth. Of the seven interviews, two themes emerged: first, enhancing patients’ familiarity with their physician promoted positive birth experiences; and, second, developing patient knowledge of the birthing process increased birth preparedness. Conclusions: The short MTD program represents a resource-efficient means of increasing patients’ readiness to encounter an unfamiliar provider during childbirth and may contribute to heightened perceptions of care continuity within the FM-OB shared-call model.
McKenna et al. (Tue,) studied this question.