{"title":"Undignified Maternity Care During Childbirth: An Ethnographic Study on Midwives' Perspectives in a Community Healthcare Centre in South Africa.","authors":"Thandazile Adjunia Mayisela, Esther Lydie Wanko Keutchafo, Olivia Baorapetse Baloyi","doi":"10.1177/23333936241273096","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Undignified care of women during labor has been associated with increased preventable maternal morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to explore midwives' perspectives on undignified care of women in a midwife's obstetric unit within a rural community healthcare center in South Africa. Using ethnographic methods, seven midwives were recruited to participate in individual interviews and participant observations were conducted in the unit. Three main themes describing undignified care were identified based on an inductive analysis of observations and interview data. These included a lack of respect for women's bodily autonomy during labor, structural challenges in the provision of quality maternity care, and the lack of confidential care for women in labor and delivery. The study findings show that obstetric violence remains a serious crisis in the well-being of women during childbirth. Policy development by stakeholders in maternity care, including operational healthcare practitioners, should prioritize training, monitoring, and peer support on dignified care and curbing disrespect and abuse of women during childbirth, which seemed to be deeply rooted in the routine unorthodox treatment of childbirth.</p>","PeriodicalId":45940,"journal":{"name":"Global Qualitative Nursing Research","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11483786/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Qualitative Nursing Research","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/23333936241273096","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NURSING","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Undignified care of women during labor has been associated with increased preventable maternal morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study was to explore midwives' perspectives on undignified care of women in a midwife's obstetric unit within a rural community healthcare center in South Africa. Using ethnographic methods, seven midwives were recruited to participate in individual interviews and participant observations were conducted in the unit. Three main themes describing undignified care were identified based on an inductive analysis of observations and interview data. These included a lack of respect for women's bodily autonomy during labor, structural challenges in the provision of quality maternity care, and the lack of confidential care for women in labor and delivery. The study findings show that obstetric violence remains a serious crisis in the well-being of women during childbirth. Policy development by stakeholders in maternity care, including operational healthcare practitioners, should prioritize training, monitoring, and peer support on dignified care and curbing disrespect and abuse of women during childbirth, which seemed to be deeply rooted in the routine unorthodox treatment of childbirth.
期刊介绍:
Global Qualitative Nursing Research (GQNR) is a ground breaking, international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal focusing on qualitative research in fields relevant to nursing and other health professionals world-wide. The journal specializes in topics related to nursing practice, responses to health and illness, health promotion, and health care delivery. GQNR will publish research articles using qualitative methods and qualitatively-driven mixed-method designs as well as meta-syntheses and articles focused on methodological development. Special sections include Ethics, Methodological Development, Advancing Theory/Metasynthesis, Establishing Evidence, and Application to Practice.