Promoting compassionate and respectful maternity care during facility-based delivery in Ethiopia: perspectives of clients and midwives

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore clients’ and midwives’ perceptions of compassionate and respectful care during facility-based delivery in Bishoftu District, the regional state of Oromia, Ethiopia. SETTING: Public health facilities (two health centres and one district hospital). STUDY DESIGN: A qualitative exploratory descriptive research design was used. STUDY PARTICIPANTS: The research population included purposely sampled women who had given birth in a health facility in the previous 2 weeks and midwifery experts who provided maternity care in the health facility’s labour and delivery wards. Data were gathered through an individual interview (with 10 midwives and 12 women in labour). Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed immediately. For the research, thematic analysis was performed manually. Both a priori codes (from the query guide) and emerging inductive codes were used in the study. In the thematic data analysis, three inter-related stages were involved, namely data reduction, data display and data conclusion. RESULTS: From the analysis of in-depth interviews with labouring women, three themes emerged, namely: dignified and respectful care, neglectful care and unqualified staff. Five main categories emerged from in-depth interviews with midwives: trusting relationships formed with labouring women, compassionate and respect-based behaviour, good communication skills and holistic care, intentional disrespect toward women, and barriers to compassionate and respectful maternity care due to structural factors. These themes were discovered to be a rich and detailed account of midwives’ perspectives on compassionate and respectful maternity care. CONCLUSION: The majority of women who witnessed or suffered disrespect and violence during labour and childbirth were dissatisfied with their maternity care during labour and delivery. Despite midwives’ accounts showing that they were aware of the importance of compassionate and respectful maternity care, clients face verbal abuse, neglect, and a lack of supportive treatment during labour and childbirth. Clients’ human rights were violated by disrespectful or abusive acts, whether perpetrated or observed. It is essential to address structural problems such as provider workload, and all other initiatives aimed at improving midwives’ interpersonal relationships with women to provide compassionate and respectful client-centred maternity care.