Mothers face abuse in clinics

The abuse and suffering that pregnant women are subjected to during child labour and child birth in Kenya’s hospitals and clinics has been exposed in a new survey whose findings were released on Thursday.

The new report outlines how the health workers turn what is supposed to be a moment of happiness and high expectation into one of distress and shame for mothers.

The report by government agency, Population Council, reveals that women seeking child birth services are usually subjected to inhuman treatment ranging from denial of privacy to forced female genital mutilation.

The demeaning physical and verbal abuse and lack of privacy are partly to blame for the high number of pregnant women seeking to deliver under the care of traditional birth attendants.

Findings of the survey, “Promoting Respectful Maternal Care in Kenya”, show that nearly nine in every 10 health workers interviewed accepted women were subjected to various forms of abuse, including using harsh words, threats to the mothers, re-stitching and slapping.

Other health workers admitted discriminating against the mothers on the basis of tribal alignment or economic capabilities.

One of the health workers said the staff slap the mothers in an effort to “help” them, at the critical times that they think the baby may die, if they do not do as instructed to do.

The findings were launched on Thursday at a meeting held in Nairobi.

The research, funded by the US Agency for International Development, Population Council and other partners enlisted the National Nurses Association of Kenya, Fida and the Ministry of Health.

The research was carried out in 13 health institutions in Kisumu, Uasin Gishu, Kiambu, Nyandarua and Nairobi’s Pumwani.

Some 67 health care providers were interviewed and 677 client-provider interactions were observed.

According to Faith Mbehero of NNAK, the workers they talked to, who said they had observed the malpractices, said they were faced with a number a challenges, which she believes could explain their move to develop a wrong attitude to the health facilities.

Most of them said they had witnessed instances where patients were not asked for consent for vaginal examinations, she said.

“The health workers said their superiors lacked the moral ground to punish them”, Ms Mbehero said adding that disciplinary measures only went as far as transferring rogue workers to other centres or wards.

The report found out that the mistreatment at the health centres — hospitals and clinics — discouraged women from seeking medical care there, while increased business for the traditional midwives.

“Today, just four in 10 Kenyan women have their babies in a hospital or a health facility,” Population Council researcher Charlotte Warren said.

“Certainly every woman seeking care does not experience this terrible treatment, but even one case of disrespect is too many… Women deserve quality care and support during pregnancy and childbirth.”

According to the report, one in five women reported that there was disrespectful or humiliating treatment during childbirth.

Also, one in 10 felt their privacy was compromised.

“Examination, delivery and treatment that required undressing was done without curtains or partitions,” Population Council’s Timothy Abuya said.

“Sometimes consultation was carried out without the assurance of audio privacy.”

Mr Abuya recounted a respondent’s experience who was left to deliver a baby on her own and the attendants returned only after they heard the baby cry.

“When she informed the health staff that it was her third birth, the attendant retorted that she was used to the pain, did not need pain-relievers, and that she knew what to do,” Mr Abuya said.

The survey showed that 13 in every 100 women reported they had been abandoned during labour.

Some women said they received treatment that they had not consented to.

“One of the men we talked to told us he paid a nurse Sh200 to take good care of his wife,” Mr Abuya said.

A dirty environment, insufficient beds, curtains and equipment, and lack of food, further discourage women from delivering in health centres, the survey added.