Gravid mage

Project: Expecting a baby in Arabic and Swedish! Efficient and integrating design for interactive antenatal care

The research project has created a digital language support for Swedish midwives to facilitate communication in maternity care. The language support called Sadima is available in three languages: Arabic, English and Swedish.

The project was completed in July 2020.

Facts about the project

Project leader
Gunilla Byrman, professor of the Swedish language
Other project members
Astrid Skoglund, Dima Bitar, Jean Stevenson-Ågren, Marie Oscarsson, Linnaeus University; Stina Ericsson, University of Gothenburg
Participating organizations
Linnaeus University; University of Gothenburg
Financier
The Kamprad Family Foundation
Timetable
2017–2020
Disciplines involved
Swedish, Department of the Swedish, Faculty of Arts and Humanities. The project is interdisciplinary and involves researchers in health and caring sciences, health informatics and Swedish.

Go directly to Sadima: https://sadima.lnu.se/

More about the project

The initial aim of the research was to create language support that would facilitate midwives to communicate with Arabic-speaking women. However, the project evolved from having a Swedish-Arabic version to also include Swedish-English.

There were two related projects included in the research which adopted a norm-critical perspective with an effective and integrative design. The first project was “Expecting a baby in Arabic and Swedish! Norm-critical, innovative design for interactive antenatal care”, and the second was “Expecting a baby in Arabic and Swedish! Effective and integrative design for interactive antenatal care”.

The projects aimed to enable midwives to give the right information to the right person at the right time. The outcome of these projects is a website that provides the core information given on the basic programme for Swedish antenatal care, with information about pregnancy, labour and delivery, and contraception. The information is evidence-based and quality-assured. The website does not save any user information.

The researchers hope that the website will improve patient safety for women with limited knowledge of the Swedish language. In addition, it is hoped that accessible information will empower women and their relatives, as well as improve the safety of the unborn and newborn child. Moreover, the website is anticipated to reduce the workload of midwives and to reassure them that they are providing the right information to their clients.

Research on data collected during the projects has also provided insights into communication patterns in healthcare.

These projects have been carried out by an interdisciplinary team at Linnaeus University with researchers from healthcare, health informatics and the Swedish. The contents of the website have been developed in collaboration with midwives in Kalmar County.

The projects were funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation, Vinnova and Linnaeus University, 2016–2020.

Link to the Vinnova project: Expecting a baby in Arabic and Swedish! Norm-critical, innovative design for interactive antenatal care