Research

Our team has several completed and ongoing projects to assess where and under what circumstances person-centered care is provided.

This work highlights several gaps in person-centered maternity care (PCMC), evidenced by poor communication, lack of respect for women’s autonomy, lack of supportive care, and disrespect and abuse during prenatal care and childbirth. For example, in our work utilizing the PCMC scale our team developed (with scores ranging from 0-100; higher scores indicative of higher PCMC), we documented average PCMC scores among women surveyed in Ghana at 52 and in Kenya at 66. Communication and autonomy were the lowest scored in both countries. For instance, in Ghana, 44% of survey respondents reported providers did not obtain their consent before initiating examinations and procedures. Women of low socio-economic status (SES) received poorer PCMC as compared to women of high SES. Additionally, women receiving care at higher level and volume birthing facilities reported poorer PCMC, compared to those who gave birth in lower level facilities.

Selected publications