Respectful Maternal Care Program for Healthcare Personnel
Indigenous women in Mexico and Guatemala are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy and child-birth related causes than non-Indigenous women. According to the World Health Organization, most maternal deaths could be prevented by providing women access to quality, respectful and equitable maternal care. Unfortunately, many Indigenous women encounter discriminatory, disrespectful and low-quality practices at their health institutions.
Our Respectful Maternal Care program works with medical personnel, nursing schools, hospitals and clinics to ensure they provide women, and in particular Indigenous women, the best quality and culturally-respectful prenatal, delivery and postpartum care possible. This includes care that is free of violence and discrimination. The program consists of a series of workshops with medical practitioners; observations of medical practices at clinics and hospitals; surveys of service users; the creation of individual and collective improvement plans, meetings with healthcare management and follow up observations.
Over the past five years we have worked in the Los Altos, Palenque, Ocosingo and Yajalón regions of Chiapas, and in three health districts in the state of Yucatán, and have trained nearly 2000 health practitioners.
Elements of our Respectful Maternal Care Program
We are training supervisory staff in medicine, nursing and community programs to guarantee the provision of quality care with dignity and respect.
We collaborated with Mexico’s IMSS Bienestar Dept., and the Ministry of Health to train staff working at hospitals, local clinics, birth centers, and mobile health clinics, with the potential to reach nearly 2 million community members.
Hundreds of medical and nursing interns are participating in GPA’s training sessions on providing respectful maternal care in the rural regions where they work.
Interns often provide care at health centers and hospitals primarily to rural, Indigenous women who have their own language, and forms of healthcare. Medical institutions must take measures to ensure they provide culturally appropriate care.
Collaboration between midwives and health personnel based on equity and respect is essential to providing appropriate maternal care for Indigenous women.
In the areas where we work, we are bringing both groups together as caregivers so they can discuss the maternal health problems in the region, and propose solutions based on their particular roles in the community and at the health institutions.