Challenges and barriers in moving toward respectful maternity care (RMC) in labor and childbirth: A phenomenology study

Abstract

Objective (s): The concept of respectful maternity care is to organize and provide care accompanied with respect and dignity for all women. RMC is an approach based on human rights which improve quality of care and birth experience. Implementation of RMC is unsatisfactory in some hospitals in Tehran. This study aimed to determine the challenges and barriers of respectful maternity care, based on the experiences of midwives. Methods: This was a qualitative-phenomenological study which conducted in selective hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Science in 2020. Participants were 40 midwives who administer antenatal care. The data were collected by 4 sessions of focus group discussion and 6 semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis method by MAXQDA 10 software. Results: Midwives faced with a number of challenges and barriers in providing respectful maternity care. In all six main themes emerged from the analysis: governance, human resource education, structural, processing and provider- related and receiver- related challenges and barriers. Conclusion: Barriers for providing respectful maternity care are nested in all levels of health system. Developing interventions for each level, coordinated with each other, is essential in provision of a respectful care for mother in labor and during childbirth.

Keywords

• respectful maternity care
• challenge
• barriers
• labor and child birth