Belonging: a meta-theme analysis of women's community-making in group antenatal and postnatal care.

Health care systems are social institutions simulating microcosms of wider societies where unequal distribution of power and resources translate into inequities in health outcomes, experiences and access to services. Growing research on participatory women's groups positively highlights the influence of group-based care on health and wellbeing for women, their infants, families and wider communities across different countries. With similarities in ethos and philosophies, group care combines relational, group-based facilitation and clinical care, uniquely offering an opportunity to examine the intersections of health and social care.

Integrating postnatal care into the redesign of group care beyond birth.

Background: Globally, alarmingly high rates of maternal and infant mortality and morbidity persist. A constellation of health system and social factors contribute to this, including poor quality and barriers to accessing health care, including preventive services. As such, there have been calls for a redesign of maternal and child health (MCH) services.

Identifying anticipated challenges when implementing group care: Context-analyses across seven countries to develop an anticipated challenges framework.

Problem: Despite increasing interest in Group Care worldwide, implementation is challenging.

Background: Group Care is an evidence-based perinatal care model including three core components: health assessment, interactive learning, and community building. It has several advantages for service users and providers compared to individual perinatal care.

Implementing group care in Dutch and Surinamese maternity and child care services: the vital importance of addressing outer context barriers.

Background: By addressing physical and psychosocial needs, group care (GC) improves health-related behaviours, peer support, parent-provider interactions and may improve birth outcomes. Hence, global implementation of GC is encouraged. Context analyses prior to implementation are vital to elucidate which local factors may support or hinder implementation.

Anticipated benefits and challenges of implementing group care in Suriname's maternity and child care sector: a contextual analysis.

Background: Suriname is a uppermiddle-income country with a relatively high prevalence of preventable pregnancy complications. Access to and usage of high-quality maternity care services are lacking. The implementation of group care (GC) may yield maternal and child health improvements.

Group Care in the first 1000 days: implementation and process evaluation of contextually adapted antenatal and postnatal group care targeting diverse vulnerable populations in high-, middle- and low-resource settings.

Background: Group care (GC) improves the quality of maternity care, stimulates women's participation in their own care and facilitates growth of women's social support networks. There is an urgent need to identify and disseminate the best mechanisms for implementing GC in ways that are feasible, context appropriate and sustainable. This protocol presents the aims and methods of an innovative implementation research project entitled Group Care in the first 1000 days (GC_1000), which addresses this need.