CONFERENCE PROCEEDING
Health workers training related to respectful maternal care: preliminary results of IMAgiNE EURO project in 12 countries
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Raquel Costa 26,27,28
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Helen Elden 40,41
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1
Health University of Applied Sciences, Innsbruck, Austria
 
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NGO Baby Steps, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
 
3
Roda – Parents in Action, Zagreb, Croatia
 
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Faculty of Health Studies, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
 
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Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Research Unit, Institut National d’Études Démographiques, Paris, France
 
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Baby-friendly Hospital Initiative, France
 
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Department of Epidemiology and International Public Health, School of Public Health, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany
 
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University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
 
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Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy
 
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Medical School and Midwifery School, Genoa University, Genoa, Italy
 
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University of Milano Bicocca, Milano, Italy
 
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School of Nursing, Ohio University, Ohio, USA
 
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Department of Nursing, Ruppin Academic Center, Emek Hefer, Israel
 
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Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Riga Stradins University, Rīga, Latvia
 
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Riga Maternity Hospital, Riga, Latvia
 
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Faculty of Medicine, Riga Stradins University, Rīga, Latvia
 
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Faculty of Public Health and Social Welfare, Riga Stradins University, Riga, Latvia
 
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Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
 
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Kaunas University of Applied Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
 
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Kaunas Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
 
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Professional association of the Lactation Consultants in Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
 
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Neonatal intensive care unit, KannerKlinik, Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg, Luxembourg, Luxembourg
 
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Department of health and care sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
 
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Department of health and caring sciences, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen, Norway
 
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Department of Midwifery, Centre of Postgraduate Medical Education, Warsaw, Poland
 
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EPIUnit, Instituto de Saúde Pública, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
 
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Laboratório para a Investigação Integrativa e Translacional em Saúde Populacional, Porto, Portugal
 
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Human-Environment Interaction Laboratory, Universidade Lusófona, Lisbon, Portugal
 
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Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
 
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Universidade Europeia, Lisbon, Portugal
 
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Plataforma CatólicaMed/Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar em Saúde da Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, Portugal
 
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Regional Health Administration of the Algarve, IP, Faro, Portugal
 
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Education and Sports, Faculty of Psychology, Lusófona University, Porto, Portugal
 
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University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila, Bucharest, Romania
 
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SAMAS Association, Bucharest, Romania
 
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Centar za mame, Belgrade, Serbia
 
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National Institute of Public Health, Ljubljana, Slovenia
 
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Department of Anthropology, Philosophy and Social Work, Medical Anthropology Research Center, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain
 
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Institut Català de la Salut, Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
 
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Institute of Health and Care Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
 
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Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Region Västra Götaland, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden
 
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Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Institution of Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University, Lund and Skåne University Hospital, Malmö, Sweden
 
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School of Health Sciences, HES-SO University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, Lausanne, Switzerland
 
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Institute of Midwifery, School of Health Professions, ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland
 
 
Publication date: 2023-10-24
 
 
Corresponding author
Marzia Lazzerini   

Institute for Maternal and Child Health IRCCS Burlo Garofolo, Trieste, Italy
 
 
Eur J Midwifery 2023;7(Supplement 1):A198
 
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
The IMAgiNE EURO project is currently ongoing in 23 countries. It documents the perspective of both mothers and health workers (HWs) on the quality of maternal and newborn care around the time of childbirth, during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the IMAgiNE Euro Project this study aimed at investigating training on respectful care, across HWs from 12 countries of the WHO European Region.

Material and Methods:
HW providing care to women and newborns in facilities for at least 1 year between March 1st 2020 to March 1st 2023, were invited to answer an anonymous, validated, online survey based on WHO Standards Quality Measures. We performed a descriptive analysis on indicators related to respectful maternity care training courses and subgroup analyses to look at differences by facility type (private vs public) and by health profession (midwife vs other HWs).

Results:
Among 4143 HWs more than a half were midwives (2500, 60.3%), with the larger sample was from Italy (589, 14.2%). There was a large variation of frequencies across countries for all Quality Measures and no country was free from gaps. More than one third of HWs reported “need of significant improvement” on training events on counselling and communication (1406, 34.2%; country range: 20.1%-64.3%), pain relief practices (1496, 36.4%; 36.1%-58.0%), emotional support (1595, 38.8%; 29.1%-60.7%), informed consent practices (1757, 42.7%; 33.1%-71.3%), and rights of women/newborns (2050, 49.8%; 47.9%-82.6%). HWs in public facilities reported significantly higher “need of significant improvement” for all Quality Measures on respectful care training. Midwives perceived higher need of significant improvement for counselling and communication (p=0.001) and rights of women/newborns (p=0.002).

Conclusions:
HWs from both maternal and newborn area in 12 countries of the WHO European region call for improvements on training to strengthen their respectful care skills. Training delivery and HWs competences should be routinely monitored to ensure high quality care for all women.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We gratefully acknowledge all health workers from all countries who have answered the online survey.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
FUNDING
This study was supported by the Ministry of Health, Rome, Italy, in collaboration with the Institute for Maternal and Child Health, IRCCS “Burlo Garofolo,” Trieste, Italy.
eISSN:2585-2906
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