Respecting Autonomy, Privacy, and Information in Maternity Care: A Study of Midwifery Personnel in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (2022)

Health services for mothers and babies should be comprehensive and combined with respect for individual autonomy, privacy, secrets and information of mother and baby. The present study aimed to determine the status of respect for individual autonomy, privacy, secrets and information of mother and baby from the point of view of midwifery personnel working in public hospitals of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2022.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted by census method and available on 243 midwifery personnel working in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences public hospitals. The data were collected with an electronic researcher's questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS-22 statistical software, one-sample t, independent t, one-way analysis of variance, Tukey's post hoc, and Pearson correlation coefficient at a significance level of p<0.05.

The average age of the participants was 35.00±5.02 years (minimum age 24 years and maximum 42 years). The findings showed that the average score of respect for individual autonomy (3.39±0.21), privacy protection (3.64±0.27), and secrets and information of mother and baby (3.71±0.26) is average (p<0.001).

Inadequate and weak attitudes of mothers regarding their own rights regarding respect for individual autonomy, privacy, secrets and information can be caused by low self-confidence and lack of mother's knowledge about her and her baby's rights in the hospital. Therefore, managers and health policymakers must strengthen these concepts in health service providers by providing scientific and practical programs.