By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Dec 2: Stakeholders have expressed concerns over mistreatment and violence against women experienced during the facility-based childbirth and other reproductive health services.
The stakeholders raised their concerns at an interaction on Midwifery Services for Safe Motherhood and Reproductive Rights organised by the Midwifery Society of Nepal (MIDSON) in the capital on Monday.
They also suggested for recognising these issues which, according to them, should be addressed from a human rights perspective.
The participants said that they had experienced mistreatment such as some service providers act without respecting for privacy and confidentiality while performing vaginal examination during labour.
They accused service providers for permitting medical students to observe childbirths and share them with patients’ personal information. Maternity services providers have also been accused of engaging in gossips at the labour room, among others.
Mistreatment and violence against women not only violates the rights of women but can also threaten their rights to life, health, bodily integrity, privacy and freedom from discrimination, said Dr Laxmi Tamang, President of MIDSON.
The participants shared about the behaviour of the service providers during the time of child delivery at the service centres including the hospitals.
In many cases, women face discrimination in making choice either to deliver babies naturally or go for the caesarean section, said Tamang.
As per the reports, more than 50 per cent of the child birth is carried out through the caesarean section in almost all private and government hospitals. This process is not always favourable for the health of mothers and babies except for in some complications.
Normal pregnancy and childbirth is very essential for a woman to live a healthy life with dignity, said Tamang, adding a professional midwife could play significant role for natural childbirths.
Midwives can provide special care to child bearing women by respecting their rights in a humane manner, said Tamang.
The midwifery education and well-trained midwives can save lives of women and newborns, thus reducing maternal and infant mortality rates in the country.
In the recent years, the caesarean section has become the option of childbirth due to the lack of midwifery care, said Tamang. Every woman should know about the condition they are going through during the child birth.
“Midwifery care for women and new-borns saves lives and contributes to healthy families,” said Tamang.
The participants pointed that the woman reproductive rights should be looked through the holistic approach and all women deserve respectful maternity care.