Abuse, disrespect and mistreatment during childbirth care: contribution of the Ribeirão Preto cohorts, Brazil

Abstract

This study aimed to estimate the perception and frequency of abuse, disrespect and mistreatment (ADM) situations during childbirth care of 745 women from the Ribeirão Preto birt cohorts. Confidential questionnaires containing one question regarding perceived abuse during childbirth care and other questions addressing exposure to ADM situations were applied. The chi-squared test was used to compare the situations presented between women who did and did not report mistreatment using the Stata 14.0 software. Among the 745 women evaluated, 66.2% were exposed to some situation of ADM and 8.3% reported having perceived ADM. The most frequent situations were that the woman could not eat or drink (30.5%), the woman had her belly squeezed to help the child be born (27.5%), and the woman could not stay with a companion of her choice (25.5%). Women who reported to have suffered maltreatment more frequently responded positively to all situations of ADM when compared to the other participants, except for the following statements: “I was not allowed to eat or drink anything” (p = 0.975) and “I was forced to have a cesarean delivery against my will” (p = 0.073). Although most women of the Ribeirão Preto cohorts reported exposure to ADM situations during childbirth care, a minority perceived disrespect or mistreatment.

Prevalence of disrespect and abuse during childbirth and its related factors in women hospitalized in the postpartum ward

“…[ 25 ] This rate was reported to be 99.7% in the study conducted by Azhar et al , 98% in Okafor et al , 83% in Ganle and Krampah, 78.2% in Bekele, and 66% in Dornelas. [ 5 , 6 , 8 , 17 , 26 ] The prevalence of disrespect and abuse during childbirth was 20.1% in the study of Abuya et al ,[ 3 ] which is significantly lower than that in the present study. This may be due to differences in the ratio of delivery providers to the number of clients and the number of resources available in the study centers because the high number of clients in environments with limited resources can lead to poor-quality maternity care.…”