Respectful Maternity Care (RMC)

Description:

Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) is defined as care that maintains dignity, privacy, and confidentiality of pregnant and birthing women, ensures freedom from harm and mistreatment, and enables informed choice and continuous support during labour and birth. 1 Despite being a fundamental right for all childbearing women, disrespect and abuse is rampant across many facilities in both high and low resource settings. There is evidence that links this kind of care to adverse maternal and neonatal health outcomes such as postpartum haemorrhage, physical injuries, etc. 2 Additionally, these negative birth experiences result in women losing faith in the healthcare system, leading to poor health-seeking behaviour, delayed access to healthcare and an increase in the rate of births with unskilled attendants. 3 4 Thus, RMC is the foundation to providing high-quality care and in reducing maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. Aastrika Foundation has developed a training programme to sensitise various stakeholders, create awareness about RMC and respect a woman’s rights and choices through supportive communication, actions and attitudes.

Target Audience:

ASHAs, ANMs, GNMs, Staff Nurses, Doctors, Paramedics, Housekeeping & Security Staff as well as Students.

Methodologies Employed:

Didactic presentation, simulation, and role plays.

Pre-Requisite:

Complete the free online course on RMC on our Aastrika Sphere platform. We have the course in both Hindi and English and the links are given below:

In Hindi – https://sphere.aastrika.org/app/toc/do_1137080467819233281337/overview

In English – https://sphere.aastrika.org/app/toc/do_11357408383009587211503/overview

The course is also available on the Sphere app which can be downloaded from Play Store @:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aastrika.sphere

Training Outcome:

  1. Increases knowledge about RMC.
  2. Demonstrate respectful, woman-centered care and communicate effectively within healthcare teams.
  3. Participants are able to apply RMC principles in contexts based on cadre and scope of work.
  4. Increases overall RMC compliance as a facility, resulting in better health outcomes and increased number of women reporting positive birth experiences.

Duration:

6 to 7 hours

Trainer-Trainee Ratio:

1:6 to 1:8

  1. World Health Organization. The prevention and elimination of disrespect and abuse during facility-based childbirth: WHO statement. 2014. Available at: https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/134588/WHO_RHR_14.23_eng.pdf. Accessed: 26 May 2023.[↩]
  2. Raj A, Dey A, Boyce S, Seth A, Bora S, Chandurkar D, Hay K, Singh K, Das AK, Chakraverty A, Ramakrishnan A. Associations between mistreatment by a provider during childbirth and maternal health complications in Uttar Pradesh, India. Matern Child Health J. 2017;21:1821–33.[↩]
  3. Orpin J, Puthussery S, Burden B. Healthcare providers’ perspectives of disrespect and abuse in maternity care facilities in Nigeria: a qualitative study. Int J Public Health. 2019;64(9):1291–9.[↩]
  4. Bohren MA, Hunter EC, Munthe-Kaas HM, Souza JP, Vogel JP, Gülmezoglu AM. Facilitators and barriers to facility-based delivery in low-and middle-income countries: a qualitative evidence synthesis. Reprod Health. 2014;11(1):1–7.[↩]