Prevalence and risk factor for mistreatment in childbirth: In health facilities of Gondar city, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Providing compassionate and respectful maternity care to mothers is a vital intervention to improve health outcomes of women and newborns. However, there is less data of compassionate and respectful maternity care in Gondar city. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the magnitude of mistreatment and associated factors among mothers who gave birth at the public health facilities in Gondar city, northwest Ethiopia. METHODS: Institutional based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April 2019 in Gondar city public nine health facilities. A total of 584 randomly selected women in the postpartum period were recruited in this study. A binary logistic regression analysis was done to see whether there was an association between mistreatment and independent variables. Finally, the logistic regression analysis was done by stratifying type of parity and mode of delivery. RESULTS: Overall, 73.2% (95% CI: 69.7–76.7%) of the women were mistreated during their childbirth care. Non-consented care was the most commonly experienced form of mistreatment (63.6%, 95% CI: 59.6–67.6%). Having less than four antenatal care follow-up visits (AOR = 3.58, 95% CI: 2.04–6.29), giving birth in the hospital (AOR = 2.83, 95% CI: 1.52–5.27), and facing complications during delivery (AOR = 2.06, 95% CI: 1.52–3.98) were significantly associated with mistreatment among postpartum mothers. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed a lower proportion of mistreatment than other studies in Ethiopia. Having less than four ANC follow up, place of current delivery, and facing complication during delivery were identified as the determinants of mistreatment. Therefore, this calls for strengthening actions, like providing maternity education during antenatal care and appropriate management of complications to improve the quality of maternity care at health facilities, and enhancing hospital working health workers capacity on compassionate and respectful maternity care.