In Nigerian hospitals, pregnant women are insulted by healthcare providers. This is wrong and dangerous for the country’s maternal mortality indices
Respectful maternity care is an integral component of the universal rights of childbearing women gear towards comprehensive, high-quality health services. I strongly believe that respectful maternity care is a woman right, not a luxury awarded only to women in certain geographical location.
The relationships women have with their maternity care providers and the maternity care system during pregnancy and childbirth are very important. This is because the experience the women have at this time could empower them; it could also inflict long-lasting damage coupled with emotional trauma. All of these could have a cumulative effect that would further impair women’s personal confidence and lower their self esteem.
But on-the-field experience suggested that women are vastly disrespected and are subjected to several forms of abuse during pregnancy and childbirth.
Abusing pregnant women is a common phenomenon particularly at government-owned hospitals and health facility centres that are offering maternity care services.
Ask any Nigerian woman that has visited any government health facility during antenatal clinic visits, labour and during childbirth. They will confirm that at at one point or another, they had to deal with some form of disrespect and abuse from maternity care providers. It suffice to say that the fear of being mistreated keeps many Nigerian women away from seeking maternity services at public health facilities.
While this issue poses as a major crisis, studies have shown that women from ethnic minorities are at greater risk of experiencing disrespect and abuse during facility-based childbirth. Other factors that might influence a woman’s risk include parity, age and marital status.
Furthermore, women who have experienced or expect mistreatment from health workers may be less likely to deliver in a facility and to seek care in the future. This is why urgent action is needed to ensure that healthcare providers at maternity centers are not insulting or disrespecting expectant and usually naive pregnant women because if they do, the women will be reluctant to return to the clinic during subsequent pregnancies and may be pushed on amateurs and quacks which could further worsen Nigeria’s already terrible maternal mortality indices.
It is worthy to note the efforts of non-government organization such as JHPIEGO/Maternal and Child Survival Program (MCSP) that are striving to promote this concept in Nigeria by training healthcare workers by deploying an already created concept. There is urgent need to incorporate their existing concept into all the healthcare levels – national, state and local government levels in order to improve quality of maternity care services in Nigeria in addition to achieving and ensuring positive outcomes.