Background Abuse of human rights in childbirth are documented in low, middle and high resource countries. A systematic review across 34 countries by the WHO Research Group on the Treatment of Women During Childbirth concluded that there is no consensus at a global level on how disrespectful maternity care is measured. In British Columbia, a community-led participatory action research team devel...

BACKGROUND Maternity care is all care in relation to pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. In the Netherlands maternity care is provided by midwives and general practitioners (GPs) in primary care and midwives and gynecologists in secondary care. To be able to interpret women's experience with the quality of maternity care, it is necessary to take into account their 'care path', that...

OBJECTIVE To explore and describe hospital-birthing women's understandings of and experiences with interventions during labor and birth. METHODS Qualitative data was collected as part of a larger ethnographic study of childbirth in the United States. The grounded theory method was employed to analyze interviews with 59 women from three states who had recently given birth in hospitals with phy...

BACKGROUND This paper summarizes a new report presenting the best available research about the impact of the liability environment on maternity care, and policy options for improving this environment. Improved understanding of these matters can help to transcend polarized discourse and guide policy intervention. METHODS We used a best available evidence approach and drew on more recent empiri...

OBJECTIVE to consider the relationship between first-time mothers and care providers in an organisational context. DESIGN an ethnographic approach was used to study the views and behaviours of providers and recipients of postnatal care. Fieldwork involved mainly conversations or qualitative interviews and observation. SETTING a postnatal unit in a tertiary referral hospital in Switzerland. ...

BACKGROUND Improving the quality of care women receive during childbirth is as important as ensuring increased availability of care and numbers of healthcare providers. To be able to improve quality of care, it is important to understand what quality means for mothers as well as providers of care. METHODS 33 postnatal mothers and 10 healthcare providers from all 4 major hospitals in one distr...

INTRODUCTION Primary maternity care services are globally provided according to various organisational models. Two models are common in Finland: a maternity health clinic and an integrated maternity and child health clinic. The aim of this study was to clarify whether there is a relation between the organisational model of the maternity health clinics and the utilisation of maternity care servi...