BACKGROUND:
There are significant and growing numbers of pregnant migrant workers throughout Southeast Asia. Despite needing services throughout pregnancy and postpartum, they often face barriers to access, poorer health outcomes, and challenges in care. Addressing these issues and enhancing support is vital for improving healthcare efficiency.

OBJECTIVES:
To explore and synthesise the barriers and facilitators to pregnant migrant workers accessing antenatal care in Southeast Asia.

METHODS:
A thematic synthesis was conducted. Searches were conducted in CINAHL, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, THAIJO, Thai Digital Collection, and ASIAN ONLINE JOURNALS to identify qualitative research studies on the barriers to and facilitators of antenatal care. The SPIDER (Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type) tool was used to guide search terms. Titles, abstracts, full texts were screened independently by two reviewers. All included papers were appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) qualitative tool and data were extracted and synthesized.

RESULTS:
A total of 44 qualitative studies were included. Nine themes related to barriers to antenatal care were developed: Geographic inaccessibility and transportation, economic constraints, health system limitations, Legal restrictions, limited health literacy, cultural beliefs and social influences, employment conditions, Personal and psychosocial stressors and Restrictive hospital policy. Eight themes related to facilitators of antenatal care were identified: accessibility and convenience, health system and service responsiveness, community and language support, health literacy, positive experience, social support, cultural familiarity and beliefs, and empowerment and motivation. All barriers and facilitators apply to both pregnant migrant workers and midwives.

CONCLUSIONS:
Pregnant migrant workers need language interpretation, culturally sensitive care, respectful attitudes from staff to be able to access services. Midwives need cultural awareness training, increase manpower. Evidence on effective illegal migrant workers is limited.

KEY MESSAGE:
There are multiple barriers that impact on pregnant migrant workers. Enabling factors must be used through targeted policy reforms and develop maternity healthcare systems. Poster session 2 (Group A)