Search and read at least one article on Respectful Maternity Care and share readings in the by replying in this discussion forum.
A series by Miller et al. (2016) provides an interesting perspective into maternal health care through two extreme situations: too little, too late (TLTL), and too much, too soon (TMTS). These refer to instances revolving around the utilization of interventions during pregnancy and birth where timing and/or amount of care given can greatly affect maternal health and outcomes. In this instance, TLTL is described as "care with inadequate resources, below evidence-based standards, or care withheld or unavailable until too late to help," essentially suboptimal or ill-timed. At the other extreme, TMTS describes "routine over-medicalisation of normal pregnancy and birth" through "unnecessary use of non-evidence-based interventions, as well as use of interventions that can be life saving when use appropriately, but harmful when applied routinely or overused." The texts also report that TMTS is intuitively typically ascribed to high-income or well-developed countries while TLTL is often seen in low-income and middle-income ones. It also acknowledges that these two extremes can coexist in countries due to various social and health inequities. In this regard, this state of affairs is reminiscent to the health situation in the Philippines considering the disparity between social classes across the nation. The series emphasizes the idea that in maternity care, the right amount of care should be given at the right time and delivered in a manner that respects, protects, and promotes human rights. This core idea highlights the importance of balancing the extent to which maternity care should be given and ensuring that they are right for the client. Providing the appropriate type and amount of care not only works to promote favorable outcomes, but also respects the woman and acknowledging her care as a responsibility of the healthcare provider.
Miller, S., Abalos, E., Chamillard, M., Ciapponi, A., Colaci, D., Comandé, D., Diaz, V., Geller, S., Hanson, C., Langer, A., Manuelli, V., Millar, K., Morhason-Bello, I., Castro, C. P., Pileggi, V. N., Robinson, N., Skaer, M., Souza, J. P., Vogel, J. P., & 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. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(16)31472-6