Background: Severe maternal morbidity and mortality are worse in the United States than in all similar countries, with the greatest effect on Black women. Emerging research suggests that disrespectful care during childbirth contributes to this problem.
Purpose: To conduct a systematic review on definitions and valid measurements of respectful maternity care (RMC), its effectiveness for improving maternal and infant health outcomes for those who are pregnant and postpartum, and strategies for implementation.
Data sources: Systematic searches of Ovid Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycInfo, and SocINDEX for English-language studies (inception to July 2023).
Study selection: Randomized controlled trials and nonrandomized studies of interventions of RMC versus usual care for effectiveness studies; additional qualitative and noncomparative validation studies for definitions and measurement studies.
Data extraction: Dual data abstraction and quality assessment using established methods, with resolution of disagreements through consensus.
Data synthesis: Thirty-seven studies were included across all questions, of which 1 provided insufficient evidence on the effectiveness of RMC to improve maternal outcomes and none studied RMC to improve infant outcomes. To define RMC, authors identified 12 RMC frameworks, from which 2 main concepts were identified: disrespect and abuse and rights-based frameworks. Disrespect and abuse components focused on recognizing birth mistreatment; rights-based frameworks incorporated aspects of reproductive justice, human rights, and antiracism. Five overlapping framework themes include freedom from abuse, consent, privacy, dignity, communication, safety, and justice. Twelve tools to measure RMC were validated in 24 studies on content validity, construct validity, and internal consistency, but lack of a gold standard limited evaluation of criterion validity. Three tools specific for RMC had at least 1 study demonstrating consistency internally and with an intended construct relevant to U.S. settings, but no single tool stands out as the best measure of RMC.
Limitations: No studies evaluated other health outcomes or RMC implementation strategies. The lack of definition and gold standard limit evaluation of RMC tools.
Conclusion: Frameworks for RMC are well described but vary in their definitions. Tools to measure RMC demonstrate consistency but lack a gold standard, requiring further evaluation before implementation in U.S. settings. Evidence is lacking on the effectiveness of implementing RMC to improve any maternal or infant health outcome.
Primary funding source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (PROSPERO: CRD42023394769).