Team process in community-based participatory research on maternity care in the Dominican Republic.

ABSTRACT

A cross-cultural team consisting of US trained academic midwife researchers, Dominican nurses, and Dominican community leaders have partnered in this international nursing and midwifery community-based participatory research (CBPR) project in the Dominican Republic to understand the community experience with publicly funded maternity services. The purpose of the study was to understand community perceptions of maternity services. This article highlights the activities that the research team carried out during each phase of the research process, and how they established team identity, team trust, and team efficacy. This research has created a platform for new avenues for health providers and community to partner to improve maternal-newborn care. Community-based participatory research is one way forward to address the past and present inequities constitutive of global health disparities.