Respectful maternity care essentially applies human rights, dignity, safety, and other ethical considerations in planning and providing care for pregnant women to promote positive labor and childbirth experiences. This important component of quality maternal care emphasizes that proper care attends to the holistic needs of our clients and not only their medical conditions.
This practice can be shown through monitoring women’s experiences, encouraging supportive interventions, establishing therapeutic relationship, educating women on their rights, advocating care for the marginalized, and improving privacy and accountability measures (Bohren et al., 2020). For example, during intrapartum care, the clients can be encouraged to choose their birth companion and continuously supported with health information, respect, and involvement in decision-making. Postpartum care should maintain individualized interventions, which may involve rooming-in and exclusive breastfeeding.
Guidelines in clinical practice worldwide suggest that further improvements in respectful maternity care are possible (Miller et al., 2016). They noted the disparities in maternal health across countries and emphasized health promotion, disease prevention, and early disease detection and treatment during prenatal care to minimize the impact of health inequities.
To further promote respectful maternity care, continuous educational interventions – for care providers, students, and administrative staff – that enhance their knowledge and perceptions, reduce women’s experience of abuse and disrespect, enhance women-provider communication, and improve quality of care can be beneficial (Dhakal et al., 2022).
References:
Bohren, M. A., Tunçalp, Ö., & Miller, S. (2020). Transforming intrapartum care: Respectful maternity care. Best Practice & Research Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology, 67, 113-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpobgyn.2020.02.005
Dhakal, P., Creedy, D. K., Gamble, J., Newnham, E., & McInnes, R. (2022). Educational interventions to promote respectful maternity care: A mixed-methods systematic review. Nurse Education in Practice, 60(103317). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2022.103317
Miller, S., Abalos, E., Chamillard, M., Ciapponi, A., Colaci, D., Comandé, D., ... & Althabe, F. (2016). Beyond too little, too late and too much, too soon: A pathway towards evidence-based, respectful maternity care worldwide. The Lancet, 388(10056), 2176-2192. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31472-6