What is Patient-Centered Maternity Care?
by Rebecca Dekker, PhD, RN, APRN
© Copyright Evidence Based Birth.
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Rebecca Dekker of Evidence Based Birth is a Hypno-Mom and we love sharing all her informative articles with you! One of the many things we discuss in Hypnobabies is how women are responsible for making the choices and decisions regarding their care.
A few months ago, I had a conversation with some hospital adminstrators about their hospital’s policies for the labor and delivery unit. As I listened to them explain some policies to me (I believe we were talking about visitor policies while a woman is giving birth), I was struck by how many times they used the phrases, “We might let a woman do this,” or “In some cases, we might allow a patient to do this, but only if they did this beforehand.” I couldn’t listen to it anymore. I held up my hand to indicate that I wanted to speak, and I said (very politefully, I hope!):
“I hate to interrupt you. But something you keep saying is really jumping out at me. You keep saying, ‘We might let a woman do this,’ or ‘We might allow a patient to do this.’ Excuse me? I am the patient. This is MY birth. I choose what I want to do, you don’t ‘LET’ me do anything!”
They sat there, and their eyes got really wide, and they just looked at me and then at each other. They looked quite surprised. I wondered if this thought had never crossed their minds before.
Learn more about patient centered care HERE.
