"i wouldn't have hit you, but you would have killed your baby:" Exploring midwives' perspectives on disrespect and abusive Care in Ghana
Dzomeku, Veronica Millicent, Boamah Mensah, Adwoa Bemah, Nakua, Emmanuel Kweku, Agbadi, Pascal, Lori, Jody R., and Donkor, Peter (2020) "i wouldn't have hit you, but you would have killed your baby:" Exploring midwives' perspectives on disrespect and abusive Care in Ghana. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 20 (1). 15.
|
PDF (Published Version)
- Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (605kB) | Preview |
Abstract
Background: Quality maternal health reduces maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity. Healthcare professionals, including midwives, are significant agents for the promotion of quality maternal health. Frequents reports of disrespect and abuse of childbearing women by midwives during intrapartum care are becoming common, suggesting that many of these agents are engaging in care practices that compromise quality maternal health. Thus, understanding midwives' descriptions and experiences of the phenomenon is critical to addressing the threat. This paper, therefore, explored the understanding of midwives on D&AC and their occurrence in professional practice in a tertiary health facility in Kumasi, Ghana. Methods: An exploratory descriptive qualitative research design using an interpretative approach was employed in the study. Data were generated through individual in-depth interviews. Data saturation was reached with fifteen interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Open Code 4.03 was used to manage and analyse the data. Results: The midwives understood D&AC. They also confirmed meting out or witnessing colleagues engage in D&AC in their professional practice. The midwives described D&AC as the provision of inadequate care and the overlooking of patient-centred care, and verbal, physical, and psychological abuse. The themes revealed that socio-economic inequalities, provider perception and victim-blaming, and health system-related factors facilitate D&AC. It emerged that the following marginalized groups were at high risk for D&AC: the non-compliant, mentally ill, HIV/AIDs+, teenagers, poor, and childbearing women on admission at the general labour ward. Conclusion: The midwives understood D&AC and revealed that it frequently occurred in their professional practice. Frequent in-service training on respectful maternity care and monitoring of care provision in healthcare facilities are needed to eliminate the incidence of D&AC.
Item ID: | 88980 |
---|---|
Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
ISSN: | 1471-2393 |
Keywords: | Childbearing women, Disrespectful maternity care, Ghana, Midwives, Qualitative |
Copyright Information: | © 2020 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
Date Deposited: | 25 Sep 2025 05:39 |
FoR Codes: | 44 HUMAN SOCIETY > 4409 Social work > 440999 Social work not elsewhere classified @ 100% |
SEO Codes: | 23 LAW, POLITICS AND COMMUNITY SERVICES > 2301 Community services > 230104 Children's services and childcare @ 100% |
Downloads: |
Total: 2 Last 12 Months: 2 |
More Statistics |