Disrespect and abuse of women during childbirth in public health facilities in Arba Minch town, south Ethiopia – a cross-sectional study

INTRODUCTION: Disrespect and abuse of women during childbirth is one of the deterring factors to skilled childbirth utilization, especially in low and middle-income countries. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of women’s disrespect and abuse during childbirth in public health facilities in Arba Minch town, south Ethiopia. METHODS: Institution-based cross-sectional study design was employed at all public health institutions in Arba Minch town, south Ethiopia. A systematic random sampling method was used to include 281 women who had given birth at public health institutions between January 01 and February 28, 2017. Data were collected through face to face interview by four data collectors and they were supervised by the principal investigator during the entire period of data collection. A semi-structured pretested questionnaire was used to collect the data. Epi info version 7.1.2.0 and SPSS version 24 were used to enter and analyze the data, respectively. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of non-respectful care was 98.9%. The women’s right to information and informed consent was the most frequently violated right with a prevalence of 92.5% (95% CI: 90.9, 94.1) followed by non-dignified care (36.7, 95% CI: 34.9, 38.5), physical abuse (29.5%, 95% CI: 24.2, 34.8), discrimination (18.1%, 95% CI: 13.6, 22.6), non-confidential care (17.1%, 95% CI: 12.7, 21.5) and abandonment of care (4.3%, 95% CI: 3.1, 5.5). Rural residence, giving birth in the hospital, having no or low educational status and giving birth by cesarean route were factors significantly associated with specific women’s rights violations. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The prevalence of women’s disrespect and abuse during childbirth at the health care facilities in this study area is very high. Therefore, health managers need to work hard to tackle the problem.