ArticleBMC pregnancy and childbirth2024
Exploring women's experiences of care during hospital childbirth in rural Tanzania: a qualitative study.
Article in BMC pregnancy and childbirth, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 6 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cocreation and codesign in maternal health: processes, outcomes and implementation challenges.BMJ quality & safety · 2026Pooled it
- Health system responsiveness for maternal healthcare services in East Africa: a mixed-methods systematic review.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2025Pooled it
- A multi-faceted hospital-based intervention for intrapartum care in sub-Saharan Africa: a stepped-wedge cluster-randomized trial.Nature medicine · 2026Article
- Levels of in-facility maternal mortality, obstetric complications and stillbirths in three urban referral hospitals in Guinea: analysis of routine data from May 2021 to April 2023.BMJ global health · 2026Article
- Labour companionship and respectful treatment of women during childbirth: a cross-sectional study across 16 hospitals in Benin, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.BMJ public health · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundWomen's childbirth experiences provide a unique understanding of care received in health facilities from their voices as they describe their needs, what they consider good and what should be changed. Quality Improvement interventions in healthcare are often designed without inputs from women as end-users, leading to a lack of consideration for their needs and expectations. Recently, quality improvement interventions that incorporate women's childbirth experiences are thought to result in healthcare services that are more responsive and grounded in the end-user's needs.
aimThis study aimed to explore women's childbirth experiences to inform a co-designed quality improvement intervention in Southern Tanzania.
methodsThis exploratory qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with women after childbirth (n = 25) in two hospitals in Southern Tanzania. Reflexive thematic analysis was applied using the World Health Organization's Quality of Care framework on experiences of care domains.
resultsThree themes emerged from the data: (1) Women's experiences of communication with providers varied (2) Respect and dignity during intrapartum care is not guaranteed; (3) Women had varying experience of support during labour. Verbal mistreatment and threatening language for adverse birthing outcomes were common. Women appreciated physical or emotional support through human interaction. Some women would have wished for more support, but most accepted the current practices as they were.
conclusionThe experiences of care described by women during childbirth varied from one woman to the other. Expectations towards empathic care seemed low, and the little interaction women had during labour and birth was therefore often appreciated and mistreatment normalized. Potential co-designed interventions should include strategies to (i) empower women to voice their needs during childbirth and (ii) support healthcare providers to have competencies to be more responsive to women's needs.
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