{"id":2039,"date":"2022-05-11T17:51:09","date_gmt":"2022-05-11T17:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/?p=2039"},"modified":"2022-06-03T16:03:45","modified_gmt":"2022-06-03T16:03:45","slug":"new-national-guidelines-in-malawi-ensure-privacy-during-childbirth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/stories\/new-national-guidelines-in-malawi-ensure-privacy-during-childbirth\/","title":{"rendered":"New national guidelines in Malawi ensure privacy during childbirth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Thousands of women across Malawi told us that \u201cprivacy and confidentiality\u201d in care was their top demand for their health. One reason for this need is that women and birthing people across the country are often forced to give birth with no privacy \u2013 and sometimes in very public spaces.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These women\u2019s voices shone a light on the overlooked issue of privacy. As a result, in 2018 advocates were able to influence the Ministry of Health\u2019s national guidelines on the construction and renovation of public health facilities to require that maternity wings install delivery cubicles with bathrooms and toilets for privacy. Cubicles are now designed to accommodate the woman and her baby, a birth companion, and a midwife.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-pure-white-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>One of the issues that came out very strongly from the voices of women was the need for dignified care, specifically in delivery rooms. We now have a policy requiring privacy screens in the delivery ward to give women the respect and privacy they deserve.&nbsp; Prior to this, some women would avoid going to the hospital saying that people are walking by the hospitals [where women were laboring with no privacy] and nurses weren\u2019t concerned.<\/p><cite><strong>Honorable Minister Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda <br><\/strong>MP, Ministry of Health, Malawi&nbsp;<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The new guideline means that any new construction of maternity units must include private delivery cubicles, and advocates confirm implementation is occurring, with recent verification of the installation of delivery cubicles at the Chitipa District Hospital. In Chitipa, the maternity wing upgrades are also helping to increase the number of male partners attending birth. In Dowa, Zomba, and Chitipa districts, a midwife champion has successfully advocated for installation of privacy curtains in health facilities there as well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group has-pure-white-color has-indigo-background-color has-text-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>There is improved privacy in hospitals during delivery since now there are curtains in the labor ward. People [women] know their rights and responsibilities as patients. Husbands are accompanying their wives to the antenatal clinic now.<\/p><cite><strong>Patricia<\/strong>, community member<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of women across Malawi told us that \u201cprivacy and confidentiality\u201d in care was their top demand for their health. One reason for this need is that women and birthing people across the country are often forced to give birth with no privacy \u2013 and sometimes in very public spaces.&nbsp;&nbsp; These women\u2019s voices shone a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20],"country":[19],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3191,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/3191"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whiteribbonalliance.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}