A Quality Improvement Study on Improving Communication between Health-Care Provider and Laboring Woman: A Step toward Respectful Maternity Care

BACKGROUND: Effective communication between health-care providers (HCP) and women during labor is a key component for providing dignified and consented maternity care. The quality improvement (QI) study was planned to improve the communication skills of HCP to provide dignified and consented care in the labor ward. METHODOLOGY: This study was conducted at the labor ward of a tertiary care hospital. To assess the magnitude of nondignified and nonconsented care, baseline data were collected from the women who had normal vaginal delivery through interviews using a prestructured questionnaire. The HCPs were also interviewed about the reasons for nondignified and nonconsented care. Various change ideas were tested through the plan-do-study-act cycle to sensitize the HCP with World Health Organization recommendations on intrapartum communication. RESULTS: There was a marked improvement in communication between HCP and women in labor, i.e., addressing the woman by her name (100%), consent before each clinical examination (93%), and providing information about the progress of labor after each examination (50%). CONCLUSION: A QI approach is feasible and effective as a behavior change intervention to provide dignified and consented care in the existing settings.