Communication and Cultural Issues in Providing Reproductive Health Care to Immigrant Women: Health Care Providers’ Experiences in Meeting Somali Women Living in Finland

Communication problems due to language and cultural differences between health care professionals and patients are widely
recognized. Finns are described as more silent whereas one concurrent large immigrant group, the Somalis, are described as
more open in their communication. The aim of the study was to explore physicians-nurses/midwives’ communication when providing
reproductive and maternity health care to Somali women in Finland. Four individual and three focus group interviews were carried
out with 10 gynecologists/obstetricians and 15 nurses/midwives from five selected clinics. The health care providers considered
communication (including linguistic difficulties), cultural traditions, and religious beliefs to be problems when working
with Somali women. Male and female physicians were generally more similar in communication style, interpersonal contacts,
and cultural awareness than the nurses/midwives who were engaged in more partnership-building with the Somali women in the
clinics. Despite the communication and cultural problems, there was a tentative mutual understanding between the Finnish reproductive
health care professionals and the Somali women in the clinics.