Exploring perspectives, attitudes and experiences of women on respectful maternity care (RMC) in Blantyre, Malawi: a qualitative study
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Date
2022-01-13
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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 the research, 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).