Maternal health equity in Georgia: a Delphi consensus approach to definition and research priorities

BMC Public Health

Table 1 Ranking of Maternal Health Equity Definition (Rounds 2 and 3)

#	Definition of Maternal Health Equity^a	Mean Ranking Score
#	Definition of Maternal Health Equity^a	Round 2, ranked 1–9^b(n = 14)^c	Round 3, ranked 1–7^b(n = 12)^d
1	Eliminating underlying drivers (advantages and disadvantages between groups) of disparities across the life course^e	4.00	2.92
2	Tackling current and historical injustices manifested in the social determinants of health and the structural and political structures that impact the perinatal experience	3.64	2.00
3	All mothers and birthing people of all genders^f have equal opportunity to have a positive perinatal experience and achieve well-being	2.36	4.00
4	Appropriate and high-quality clinical care services for each mother’s and birthing person’s^g individual needs	5.00	3.75
5	Care is free from interpersonal or structural bias	3.93	4.33
6	Include pregnant people of all genders	8.57	N/A
7	Access to safe services	5.79	5.33
8	Access to affordable care	5.00	5.67
9	Approaches health from a life course perspective	6.71	N/A

Ranking of each statement was relative to one another
^aQuestion to experts: Noting that all of these are important to improve maternal health, what needs to be included in a definition of maternal health equity for Georgia?
^bOne (1) represented the highest priority
^cIncludes 1 additional response, which was included because its origin could not be determined due to the anonymity of responses
^dOne expert was unavailable
^eThe phrase “across the life course” was added for round 3 after removing concept #9
^fThe phrase “and birthing people of all genders” was added for round 3 after removing concept #6
^gThe phrase “and birthing person’s” was included only in round 3
N/A, not applicable because this question was not included in round 3

ISSN: 1471-2458