Public Health Issues

Mobilizing women to change the maternity care they receive

The technological advances in maternity care led to the over-medicalization of the natural experience of delivery for Lebanese women. This was not accompanied by the provision of evidence-based procedures during labor and delivery or with the adequate informational packages for pregnant women.

Previous research has also shown that women are not actively involved in the process of the care they receive during childbirth. Professor Tamar Kabakian and the research team gathered its efforts to mobilize women to demand changes in the provision of maternal services in two regions of the country. The idea was to find ways to encourage women’s participation in the process of receiving maternity care by enhancing their knowledge and skills. Consequently, an intervention in the form of prenatal sessions was designed and delivered to assess whether such sessions increase women’s knowledge about useful practices during labor and postpartum, and enhances the effectiveness of their communication skills to demand changes in the received care.

The findings of the study show that the intervention was beneficial in promoting women’s demand for not having an enema in labor and for having prolonged infant-mother contact during their hospital stay. Health care providers were also responsive to women’s demand for having the baby kept for longer hours in the mother’s room. The intervention also improved women’s knowledge on best practices.