Childbirth is such as divine process. It is the creation of a new life, a new person in society, filled with dreams and opportunities. This is made possible by the blood, sweat, and tears of mothers all around the world who bring them into this world. Not only that, a good relationship between a woman and her maternity care providers is also vital. However, the regular encounters that they have can either make or break the mother. This can provide potentially lifesaving health services and comfort or inflict lasting damage and emotional trauma (White Ribbon Alliance, 2011). Women’s childbearing experiences stay with them for a lifetime and are often shared with other women, contributing to a climate of confidence or doubt around childbearing.
The momentous events of pregnancy and childbirth represent a time of vulnerability to mothers. Just like the filipino saying “Nasa hukay ang isang paa”. During pregnancy, women can experience chorioamnionitis, endometritis eclampsia, and postpartum hemorrhage. In the long run, women with a history of adverse pregnancy outcomes are at increased risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases later in life (Neiger, 2017). Sadly, harm to women doesn’t stop there. According to the World Health Organization or WHO (2014), many women experience disrespectful, abusive, or neglectful treatment during childbirth in facilities across the world. This has caused the growing hesitancies of mothers in seeking professional help, resulting in unsafe medical interventions and child birthing processes. Latin Americans prefer to call this “obstetric violence”. This typically includes medicalization of natural processes of childbirth, roots in gender inequalities, parallels with violence against women, the potential for harm, and the threat to women’s rights (Savage & Castro, 2017).
The concept of “safe motherhood” should not be restricted to physical safety. Childbearing is a deep connection between a woman and a child that involves emotions, culture, spiritual beliefs. It must be expanded beyond the prevention of morbidity or mortality to encompass respect for women’s basic human rights, including respect for women’s autonomy, dignity, feelings, choices, and preferences, including choice of companionship wherever possible. Because motherhood is specific to women, issues of gender equity and gender violence are also at the core of maternity care.
In order to achieve this, every person, especially medical professionals specializing in maternal care, should practice Respectful Maternal Care (RMC). This is defined as an approach based on principles of ethics and respect for human rights and promotes practices that recognize women’s preferences and women’s and newborns’ needs (Veronica et. al, 2012). The best way to do this is to self-educate. Understand and respect culture, races, and each experience of women. Empathize with them, learn their story. Advocate and raise awareness for their rights. Treat them equally and most of all love mothers and women alike. This problem is way bigger than we perceive it to be. Healthcare systems should: increase support for research and action, create programs to promote respectful, high-quality maternal health care, develop rights-based frameworks for action, generate data on the prevalence of disrespect and abuse and interventions to mitigate it, and drive intersectional initiatives that encourage the participation of women (WHO, 2015). Ensuring access to safe, acceptable, good quality sexual and reproductive health care, particularly contraceptive access and maternal health care, can dramatically reduce global rates of maternal morbidity and mortality. As WHO (2014) stated, “Every woman has the right to the highest attainable standard of health, including the right to dignified, respectful care during pregnancy and childbirth.”
References:
Neiger R. (2017). Long-Term Effects of Pregnancy Complications on Maternal Health: A Review. Journal of clinical medicine, 6(8), 76. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm6080076
Savage, V., & Castro, A. (2017). Measuring mistreatment of women during childbirth: a review of terminology and methodological approaches. In Reproductive Health (Vol. 14, Issue 1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-017-0403-5
Veronica, B., Deller, C., Carr, JS. (2012) Respectful Maternity Care Country experiences Survey Report November 2012. Retrieved from https://www.mhtf.org/document/respectful-maternity-care-country-experiences/
White Ribbon Alliance. (2011). Respectful Maternity Care: The Universal Rights of Childbearing Women. Retrieved from https://www.mhtf.org/document/respectful-maternity-care-the-universal-rights-of-childbearing-women/
World Health Organization (WHO). (2014). Prevention and elimination of disrespect and abuse during childbirth. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/topics/maternal_perinatal/statement-childbirth/en/?utm_content=buffer34ea9&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer
World Health Organization (WHO). (2015). Statement on the prevention and elimination of disrespect and abuse during facility-based childbirth. Geneva: World Health Organization