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Review
. 2022;2(12):267.
doi: 10.1007/s43545-022-00576-5. Epub 2022 Dec 4.

Respectful maternity care in the UK using a decolonial lens

Amali U Lokugamage  1 , Nathan Robinson  2 , Sithira D C Pathberiya  3 , Sarah Wong  2 , Christine Douglass  4
Affiliations
Review

Respectful maternity care in the UK using a decolonial lens

Amali U Lokugamage et al. SN Soc Sci. 2022.

Abstract

Respectful maternity care (RMC) is part of a global movement addressing the previous absence of human rights in global safe maternal care guidance. RMC is grounded in kindness, compassion, dignity and respectful working conditions. The decolonisation movement in healthcare seeks to dismantle structural biases set up from a historically white, male, heteronormative Eurocentric medical system. This article applies a decolonising lens to the RMC agenda and examines barriers to its implementation in UK healthcare systems. Searches of peer-reviewed journals about decolonising maternity care in the UK revealed little. Drawing from wider information bases, we examine power imbalances constructed throughout a history of various colonial biases yet lingering in maternity care. The overarching findings of our analysis revealed 3 areas of focus: professional structures and institutional biases; power imbalances between types of staff and stakeholders of care; and person-centred care through a decolonial lens. To uproot inequity and create fairer and more respectful maternity care for women, birthing people and staff, it is vital that contemporary maternity institutions understand the decolonial perspective. This novel enquiry offers a scaffolding to undertake this process. Due to significant differences in colonial history between Western colonising powers, it is important to decolonise with respect to these different territories, histories and challenges.

Keywords: Decolonisation; Health personnel; Obstetrics; Paternalism; Patient perspective; Power imbalances; Racism; Respectful maternity care.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsAUL is on the Board of Directors of the International MotherBaby Childbirth organisation and was also formerly a member of the Long Covid Patient and Public Voice Partners for NHS England, in both cases deriving no financial remuneration. AUL and SDCP are company directors of a small publishing company called Docamali Ltd. SHMW is a member of the Decolonising the Medical Curriculum working group at UCL Medical School. CD is Chair the BMA Patient Liaison Group, non-voting member BMA Council, Co Equalities Champion BMA Academic Medical Staff Committee and Member Interim Measures Panel BMA. CD is the director and shareholder of Alta Stet, a consultancy company and a shareholder of Traq 21, an IT services company, unrelated to the topic of this. NR has no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Cultural Safety Tree
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