Perceptions and attitudes of midwives on respectful maternity care during childbirth: a qualitative study in three district hospitals of Kigali City of Rwanda

Abstract

Introduction: Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) is “a universal human right for every childbearing woman”. In Rwanda, few studies conducted on RMC assessed how women perceive care provided during childbirth, yet little is known about providers' perspectives. We investigated the perceptions and attitudes of midwives towards the provision of RMC to complement women's viewpoints.

Methods: this qualitative study used individual in-depth interviews in Kinyarwanda language. A purposive sampling method was used to reach out to twenty-eight midwives from three district hospitals in Kigali City. Transcribed interviews were translated into English and thematic content analysis was performed using Atlas Ti, version 7. The University of Rwanda College of Medicine and Health Sciences Institutional Review Board (Ref: 363/CHMS/IRB/2019) ethically approved this study before data collection.

Results: the majority of participants revealed that they have knowledge on RMC and perceive that they provide maternal health care based on women´s rights. Positive attitudes towards providing RMC were reported by midwives, however, a considerable number of participants reported the existence of abusive practices. The majority of midwives reported facing many challenges affecting their ability to provide respectful maternal care.

Conclusion: midwives understand the seven rights of women and have a positive attitude towards providing RMC. However, abusive practices still exist while providing RMC with considerable challenges, including overload and lack of labour monitoring materials. The adjustment of the ratio of midwives to clients and the availability of essential materials in labour monitoring is recommended to improve the quality of healthcare received by women during childbirth.