Table 3.

Future priorities for research, policy and practice

Research	Explore the negative consequences of delayed or inappropriate maternity care for disabled women who experience domestic abuse
	Understand women’s reasons for accessing maternity services and the factors that influence their decision making, particularly disability and domestic abuse
	Further explore the effects of long term mental health conditions on access to maternity care when accompanied by domestic abuse
	Explore maternity care practitioners’ understanding of disability and domestic abuse and evaluate the effectiveness of existing staff education
	Identify, develop and evaluate the most effective models of antenatal service delivery for disabled women who experience domestic abuse
	Studies which focus explicitly upon disability, domestic abuse and access to maternity care, including more qualitative research
Policy	Organisational policies and guidelines which account for the co-existence of disability and domestic abuse and establish core service requirements e.g. accessible facilities and appropriate referral pathways.
	Promote evidence based strategies for improving access to maternity care for disabled women experiencing domestic abuse
	Incorporate outward looking improvement strategies which capitalise on community resources and involve colleagues in community education and health promotion
	Involve other agencies in improving access to maternity services and ensure that non-maternity services promote the importance of early prenatal care
Practice	Foster positive, non-judgmental relationships with disabled women who experience domestic abuse
	Women centered care that does perpetrate negative stereotypes about disabled women
	Develop and implement evidenced based staff education in disability and domestic abuse issues
	Improve access and utilisation of maternity care through multidisciplinary collaboration