Respectful Maternity Care in the context of COVID 19
The unprecedented spread of COVID-19 has drastically affected the degree of safety protocols implemented across the world, may it be in public institutions, health facilities and even inside our homes. We have even come to the point where an absolute prohibition of human-to-human contact was established to minimize exposure to the deadly virus. These sudden and massive changes in the health protocols greatly impacts the provision of maternity care and infringes upon the rights of pregnant mothers to achieve a successful and healthy childbirth process.
In response to the COVID 19 pandemic, policies and practices were adjusted to accommodate the safety of the mothers from the virus, however, these deprived mothers deserving of quality care. In the development of these new policies and practices, women of marginalized communities and families lacking technical literacy were not considered in the policymaking process. Inaccessibility of telehealth prenatal checkups, restriction of companions present during labor and delivery, medically unjustified procedures being performed on women who tested positive for COVID, separation of newborns from their mothers resulting to no skin-to-skin contact and limited breastfeeding and outright denial of care were only some of the predicaments faced by mothers and families during the pandemic.
These changes blatantly demean the definition of respectful maternity care, violate basic human rights, and degrades the inclusivity and standards of health care. The right to health of pregnant mothers is first and foremost established to keep women physically and mentally safe while preserving their dignity during the process of maternal care. The right to information encompasses effective communication between patients and providers to ensure that patients know all possible safe options. The right to equality and non-discrimination enables all mothers from different social strata, race and age be deserving of quality and standard maternity care. The right to the benefits of scientific progress establishes that all people are protected and aided through the health and disease processes with evidenced-based practices. These rights and objectives of health care must not be disregarded in the context of pandemic and should be nonnegotiable in whatever context, most especially they bear new lives through the most delicate and high-risk procedure known to mankind.
Reference:
Reingold, R. B., Barbosa, I., & Mishori, R. (2020). Respectful maternity care in the context of COVID-19: A human rights perspective. Int J Gynecol Obstet, 151(3), 319-321.