| Tools for providing skilled care (skilled
provider plus) help programs improve caring behaviors
of providers during labor and delivery, an important component
to increasing use of skilled care. Maternity care providers
and health system planners can use the tools to develop
strategies to improve providers' caring behaviors.
The CHANGE Project created standard definitions of
"maternity caring behaviors" and a tool to
measure caring behaviors of individual midwives and
other skilled providers in facilities to assess, address
and improve their practices. With the input of midwife
partners from around the world, the CHANGE Project developed
a complete set of 97 "caring" provider behaviors
during labor and delivery. The list is based on the
importance placed on specific behaviors by clients and
providers, ability to observe and measure the behavior
in a labor and delivery room setting, and where possible,
evidence linking the behavior with improved birth outcome.
These categories of provider ‘caring' behaviors
were developed:
- Attend to Physical Needs
- Be Accessible to Patient
- Attend to Emotional Needs
- Respect Human Dignity /Rights
- Inform/Explain/Instruct
- Involve Family
- Incorporate Cultural Context
- Minimize Negative Behaviors
Caring behavior assessment tools were pre-tested in
Kenya and Bangladesh with the assistance of maternal
health program planners, educators of maternity care
providers, hospital supervisors and obstetric practitioners.
The input and results from the assessment pre-tests
helped to refine and improve the draft tools and adapt
the generic models to local needs.
Maternity care providers and health system planners
can use the toolset to develop behavior-based strategies
to improve provider caring behaviors. |
