Do miscarriage care practice recommendations align with individuals' needs?: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Miscarriage is a common experience; yet individuals often have negative experiences when receiving miscarriage care, signaling a gap in the quality of miscarriage care. We explore the literature on individuals' experiences with miscarriage care across a variety of dimensions and assess how these experiences align with practice recommendations.

METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of peer-reviewed studies in PubMed published in English through April 30, 2022, and focused on individuals' experiences with miscarriage care in healthcare settings and on practice recommendations for providing care in a variety of countries. The search returned 1,812 studies; after screening, 41 studies were included in the analysis.

RESULTS: Included studies reported on individuals' experiences with miscarriage care settings and accessibility, information provision, emotional support, decision-making and follow-up. Overall, individuals are often dissatisfied with their miscarriage care experiences. Practice recommendations are generally responsive to these issues, but more research is needed to address some key gaps and improve the implementation of current practice recommendations.

CONCLUSIONS: Future research should focus on documenting the miscarriage experiences and developing relevant practice recommendations for communities that face the greatest barriers to care, generating evidence on the dimensions that constitute high-quality miscarriage care from patients' perspectives and assessing the barriers and facilitators to effectively implementing existing practice recommendations.