4.2. Strengths and limitations of this study
To our knowledge, this is the first study that compares maternity care
policy and its drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic between two
different high-income countries. The multi-method approach that was used
enabled us to identify similarities and differences in maternity care
policy and their drivers within both the documentary analysis and
interviews.
A limitation of this study is that we may have missed certain published
policy documents over the period of our data collection. However, the
in-depth interviews provided additional information that suggested this
was unlikely. Having five interviewers may have led to variations in the
kind of data collected, but the team approach meant that participants
could be interviewed in their own language, and a detailed
semi-structured guide was used to minimise any nuanced differences
between interviewer style. Extensive discussion between the interviewers
took place regularly, and a joint coding framework between the countries
was established.