Speakers - 2026

Title: Validation of a strategy to promote respectful maternity care

Abstract

Background: Respectful maternity care is a critical component of high-quality maternity services, ensuring dignity, equity, and woman-centered care. However, evidence highlights persistent gaps in its implementation due to fragmented health systems and systemic disparities. Grounded in a woman-centred care framework and using secondary data from a narrative and systematic review, as well as primary qualitative and quantitative research, a contextual implementation strategy was developed.

Purpose: To describe the process used to validate the clarity and relevance of a context-specific implementation strategy to promote respectful maternity care in South African maternity settings.

Method: A Delphi technique was conducted from October 2022 to February 2023. In Round 1, structured questionnaires with open-ended questions gathered qualitative feedback, which was analyzed inductively. In Round 2, closed-ended questions were rated on a four-point Likert scale (“strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”) to reach consensus.

Results: Seven experts validated the strategy in two rounds. In Round 1, they confirmed its relevance, clarity, and appropriateness. In Round 2, all experts unanimously endorsed the relevance and appropriateness of each component and domain for improving respectful maternity care in public settings.

Conclusion: The study confirms the importance of respectful maternity care for women’s rights and health outcomes and validates a context-specific implementation strategy for South African public maternity settings. The strategy offers practical guidance for policy and practice, underscores the administrative and professional factors, and highlights the need for systemic reform and sustainable integration of respectful care to build trust, support providers, and improve maternal care quality in resource-limited settings.

The audience take away from presentation:

• This research provides healthcare providers, managers, and policymakers with a validated, adaptable strategy to strengthen respectful maternity care and improve daily practice quality.
• Faculty can use its framework and Delphi validation process to extend research, integrate respectful maternity care into curricula, and train students in evidence-based, woman-centered approaches.
• By integrating administrative and clinical dimensions, the strategy streamlines program design and makes implementation more efficient in resource-limited settings.
• Its clarity, relevance, and expert consensus enhance the accuracy of health program design and offer new evidence-based insights for addressing maternal care challenges.
• Additional benefits include protecting women’s rights, promoting systemic reform, building community health system trust, supporting professional development, and advancing global discourse on respectful maternity care.