Every childbearing woman in every health system around the world has the right to respectful maternity care. Women's interactions with maternity caregivers can either empower and comfort them, or cause long-term harm and mental distress. In any case, memories of childbirth events stick with women for the rest of their lives. While numerous interventions try to enhance access to expert birth care, the quality of interactions with caregivers throughout maternity care has received less attention. Evidence suggests, however, that fear of the disrespect and abuse that women all too often experience in facility-based maternity care is a stronger deterrent to using competent care in countries with a high maternal death rate than well-recognized barriers like cost or distance (Futures Group Global, 2022).
According to the findings of the study of Pathak et. al (2019) which includes women admitted to the maternity ward and were about to discharge as participants, over three-quarters of the women said they had received overall respectful maternity care services. Despite the fact that the majority of the women in the study experienced the overall features of RMC (Respectful Maternal Care), verbal abuse, physical abuse, delayed service provision, and not talking positively about pain and relief were all described as aspects of disrespectful care.
Similarly, length of stay for delivery, delivery time, and parity was discovered as factors that influenced the RMC characteristics of friendly care, timely care, and abuse-free care, respectively. Understanding the incidence and status of RMC services is critical for establishing interventions at all levels of the health facility, as well as encouraging clients to return during their reproductive years. Every woman has the right to give birth in an environment that is free of disrespect and abuse. To improve service quality and make it more woman-friendly, more focus should be placed on providing woman-centered care in a courteous and non-abusive way.
References:
Futures Group Global. (2022). Respectful Maternity Care. Healthpolicyproject.com. http://www.healthpolicyproject.com/index.cfm?ID=topics-RMC
Pathak, P., & Ghimire, B. (2020). Perception of Women regarding Respectful Maternity Care during Facility-Based Childbirth. Obstetrics and Gynecology International, 2020, 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5142398