Educational Intervention to Promote Respectful Maternity Care: Improvements in Midwives’ Knowledge and Practice as well as Mother Satisfaction of Childbirth
Simin Haghdoost, Mina Iravani, Saeed Ghanbari, Simin MontazeriAbstract
Background:
Respectful maternity care (RMC) is a key strategy for improving maternal–neonatal outcomes. However, in Iran, a persistent gap remains between policy recognition and clinical implementation, largely due to limited knowledge among midwives. Although educational interventions are considered an important solution, there is still insufficient empirical evidence on their effectiveness. Thus, this study assesses a structured educational intervention’s ability to bridge the knowledge-practice gap and sustainably improve maternal satisfaction.
Materials and Methods:
This quasiexperimental study was conducted in three educational hospitals in Ahvaz from March to August 2025. Fifty-five midwives were enrolled by convenience sampling. Each midwife was assessed by two mothers before and two different mothers post-intervention, leading to assessments from 220 mothers. Further, midwives’ performance was also appraised by the supervisors of each shift. Data were collected via demographic and standardized tools (MKP-RMC, WP-RMC, McKay). Data were analyzed using Chi-square, independent
Results:
The educational intervention significantly improved midwives’ awareness in emotional support, safe care, and avoidance of mistreatment (t
1
= 106.375,
Conclusions:
Structured educational interventions effectively improve midwives’ knowledge and practice, leading to significantly higher maternal satisfaction.