Respectful and evidence-based birth care in Mexico (or lack thereof): An observational study

In Mexico, women are often disrespected and abused during birth, evidence-based practices are seldom used, while outdated and dangerous procedures linger.

Disrespectful and abusive practices in Mexico have been reported but are not necessarily well-documented; none of the reports so far have relied on direct observation of births.

To describe birth practices and factors associated with respectful and evidence-based care at 15 referral hospitals in Mexico.

We observed 401 births from 2010-2016. We analysed woman, provider, and hospital characteristics and their association with the performance of 14 evidence-based and 15 respectful birth practices via descriptive statistics and multiple logistic regression models.

Only in four births were all the analysed evidence-based and respectful-birth practices performed. Essential interventions like uterine massage was only given to 46.1% of women and the administration of a uterotonic soon after birth only occurred in 58.3% of births. Professionals who were trained in respectful birth care were more likely to address women by their name (Odds Ratio=3.34, p<0.05), allow consumption of liquids during labour (Odds Ratio=31.6, p<0.05), encourage skin-to-skin contact (Odds Ratio=31.82, p<0.05), and examine the placenta after birth (Odds Ratio=16.55, p<0.01); they were less likely to perform episiotomies (Odds Ratio=0.27, p<0.05).

This study reveals low rates of evidence-based practices and respectful maternity care but shows training in the topic can have a considerable positive impact. Our results call for further efforts to improve the quality of maternal healthcare, a universal right.