Exploring perspectives, attitudes and experiences of women on respectful  maternity care (RMC) in Blantyre, Malawi: a qualitative study

Pennington, Alice; Millard, Gabriella

Exploring perspectives, attitudes and experiences of women on respectful maternity care (RMC) in Blantyre, Malawi: a qualitative study

Date

2021-12-16

Authors

Pennington, Alice

Millard, Gabriella

Publisher

Kamuzu University of Health Sciences

Abstract

Type of research study: Qualitative research comprising of semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Problem to be studied: This research study will look at perceptions, attitudes and experiences of women on Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) during pregnancy and delivery in a rural setting, Blantyre District, Malawi. Objectives: The objective of this study is to explore the perceptions and beliefs of women in rural Malawi regarding the importance of RMC and their experiences of RMC. This will help identify any barriers and facilitators to providing RMC in rural maternity facilities in Malawi. The findings of this research will hopefully inform future initiatives to help improve RMC in Blantyre District, Malawi and may also be transferable to other similar settings. Methodology: This is a qualitative study comprised of in-depth, semi-structured, individual interviews from January to March 2022. Interviews will be conducted with women who have given birth in the last year attending post-natal clinic, or women attending ante-natal clinic who have previously given birth in rural maternity service facilities in Blantyre District, in Southern Malawi: AMECA Maternity Unit, Machinjiri Health Centre and St Joseph’s Mission Hospital, Nguludi. It will use convenience sampling and then purposive sampling. The interview will take place face-to-face in a quiet and private room, space or area with a translator also present. Participants will be required to give informed consent and information collected will anonymised and encrypted. Data will be approached and analysed using thematic analysis and results will be presented in text, including anonymised quotations. Expected findings and their dissemination: This study expects to explore some of the experiences of respectful care women receive and disrespect and abuse some women have experienced in maternity care. Based on literature, the research findings are expected to demonstrate that women do not all know the standard of care they should expect and that they may not be aware of respectful maternity care (RMC). The study expects to identify barriers and facilitators to women receiving RMC. The findings also expect to cover gaps in theresearch, including perceptions, attitudes and experiences of women in rural settings of Malawi and how women’s autonomy and empowerment is involved in RMC. There also may be differences identified between the different types of maternity facilities. The report will be submitted to the University of Birmingham for Alice’s dissertation and a poster presentation for Global Health Bsc Intercalation year. The report will also be submitted to The Blantyre District Health Management, AMECA, Machinjiri Health Centre and St Joseph’s Mission Hospital for their use to help reduce barriers and improve facilitators to women accessing and receiving respectful maternity care. We will look for meetings for research be distributed to the community, for example via DEC and DHMC and this could also be how the research can be disseminated to the participants. The report is also aimed to be submitted to an open access journal for publication and presented at conferences/seminars. Copies of the final report will also be submitted to: The College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (COMREC), College of Medicine Library, The Health Sciences Research Committee (through the COMREC Secretariat) and The University Research and Publication Committee (URPC) (through the COMREC Secretariat).