Women’s Experiences of Care in Low Resource Settings – A Novel Approach   — The Association Specialists
  1. Schedule
  2. Oral Presentations - Designing, monitoring and evaluating health policy and programs
  3. Women’s Experiences of Care in Low Resource Settings – A Novel Approach  

Women’s Experiences of Care in Low Resource Settings – A Novel Approach   (23959)

Litia Narube 1 , Fiona Bruinsma 2
  1. Fiji National University, Suva, NA, Fiji
  2. Burnet Institute, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

Background: Over the past 10 years there has been increasing recognition of the importance of respectful maternity care as an essential component of good-quality care, including in limited-resource settings. There is currently no consensus approach on the best way to measure women’s experience of care at birth and there is limited data on women’s experiences of care from the Asia-Pacific region. 

 

Methods:  The Global Maternal and Newborn Health Platform (GMP) is a multi-country, prospective, facility-based, observational study. We implemented GMP in 10 Asia-Pacific countries (including Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands); using multi-stage sampling, we recruited 74 facilities (>=2000 births per year) to collect data on clinical practices and birth outcomes for 3 to 6 months. At each facility, 385 women are randomly sampled and invited to complete a pre-discharge survey using audio computer-assisted self-interview (ACASI) via digital tablet and headphones that asks about their experiences of care. With ACASI, multiple-choice questions are presented using text and pictures, with the questions and answer options spoken in the woman’s language of choice. 

 

Results: 28,0005 women completed a pre-discharge survey (77.5% of eligible). In total, 14.0% of women described some form of mistreatment during hospital admission (such as physical, verbal abuse or stigmatisation); 10.8% stated that health workers did not obtain their permission prior to vaginal examinations. Most women (72.0%) who experienced labour wanted a companion during labour, 31.7% were unable to have one.

 

Conclusions: We found a high prevalence of mistreatment and examinations being conducted without consent.  We also demonstrated a considerable unmet need for companionship during labour. These findings highlight that further work is needed to deliver the goal of providing respectful maternity care to all women. The ACASI technology is flexible and enables women across languages and literacy levels to confidentially report on their experiences of maternity care