Mistreatment during Facility Based Child-Birth Care in a Nigerian Tertiary Hospital

Background: Globally, thousands of women die annually from complications during pregnancy or child-birth especially in developing countries. The experience of mistreatment by women during childbirth has been identified as a barrier to utilization of facility based childbirth care globally, which could increase maternal mortality and morbidity. Hence, this study assessed the prevalence and forms of mistreatment experienced during facility -based childbirth care by women, in a Nigerian hospital. Method: A cross-sectional descriptive research design was used and simple random sampling technique was used to select calculated sample of 72 women who consented, from postnatal clinic of University College Hospital. A validated structured interviewer-administered questionnaire adapted from Community Survey Tool, was used to collect data on prevalence and forms of mistreatment during delivery among the women. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and ChiSquare at 5% level of significance. Ethical approval was obtained. Result: The Mean age of the women is 32±2.1 years. All of the women were married (100%), and (97.2%) had tertiary education. Prevalence of mistreatment was 16.7% with verbal abuse (shouting, 15.3%), physical abuse (slapping the thigh, 1.4%), while stigma and discrimination were 1.4%. On maternal intervention, almost half (43.1%) had Caesarean section done. Majority (70.8%) had vaginal examinations, 67% reported that their experience of vaginal examination was uncomfortable. Conclusion: The findings revealed that women experience mistreatment during delivery. Hence, there is need for education of health care workers on the implication of mistreatment and also the need to provide support to women during delivery, to enhance their childbirth experience. This could promote the utilization of facility-based child care given by skilled birth attendant and ultimately reduce maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity rate.