Abstract

Disrespectful and abusive maternity care during childbirth in Bale zone Public Hospitals, southeast Ethiopia: Crosssectional study

Author(s): Ashenafi Mekonnen, Genet Fikadu and Adem Esmeal

Background: Disrespectful and abusive maternity care is an indicator of poor quality care affecting women's decision to pursue institutional delivery. In spite of severe burdens, such malpractices remain hidden and are infrequently stated in developing countries. Therefore, this study aims to assess the status of disrespectful and abusive maternity care during childbirth and associated factors among postnatal women in public hospitals of Bale zone, Southeast Ethiopia. Method: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was done from March, 1 to July 25, 2018, among 580 postnatal women in three public hospitals of Bale zone using exit interview. Epi info for data entry and SPSS for analyzing were used. To examine the association between outcome and independent variables adjusted odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval and p-value <0.05 were used. Result: The status of disrespectful and abusive maternity care is 37.5%. In the association result, the significantly associated factors with disrespectful and abusive maternity care are; marital status with married women are 82% less likely to get disrespectful and abusive maternity care than their counterpart (AOR=0.18, CI: 0.04-0.78). secondly, women who do not have antenatal care follow-up history are 8.62 times more likely to encounter disrespectful and abuse maternity care compared to those who had (AOR=8.62; 95% CI: 1.73-43.08). Those verbally threatened women had higher odds of experiencing disrespectful and abusive maternity care than who do not (AOR=3.68; 95% CI: 1.45-9.36). Furthermore, women who ever physically abused are 5.80 times more likely to experience disrespectful and abusive maternity care compared to who do not (AOR=5.80: 95% CI: 2.77-12.16). Provision of respectful maternity care training for care providers is important.