Respectful Care Real Talk Roundtables

This Knowledge Cafe explores how experiences of care for women, newborns, and healthcare providers are framed, measured, and implemented across diverse settings. While ensuring positive experiences is critical for equity, quality, and dignity in maternal and newborn care, current efforts remain fragmented and inconsistent. The session begins with a brief framing presentation, followed by small group discussions led by facilitators drawing on practice-based experiences from Brazil, Egypt, Uganda, Nepal, South Africa, and Ireland. Table topics include: elevating parent and provider voices; addressing intersectoral drivers of mistreatment of women and babies, as well as violence against healthcare providers; the value of applying diverse measurement methods; identifying practical implementation strategies; and unpacking how terminology influences policy and funding. Participants will engage through guided dialogue, visual tools, and peer exchange to surface challenges, innovations, and opportunities for collaboration. The session will close with a collective reflection to synthesize insights.

What does quality care feel like when you give birth in a context shaped by conflict, limited supplies, and overburdened staff? This session weaves together anonymized stories from women and families in DRC and Northeast Nigeria who gave birth in health facilities-some with healthy newborns, others facing complications, stillbirth, or loss. Their words show how respectful care, clear communication, and emotional support-or the lack of impact healing and trust. While some speak of trauma, others show what made a difference: a provider who explained each step of care, a birth companion allowed to stay, a health worker who followed up. These narratives challenge us to look beyond clinical checklists and consider how systems can meet both emotional and medical needs. Grounded in qualitative research, this session highlights what compassionate, culturally sensitive, and responsive care looks like, even in the most fragile settings.

Join us to reflect on the often-hidden issue of mistreatment and abuse in maternity care, and to work together on practical strategies for change. This Knowledge Café offers a safe and inclusive space to explore why disrespect and abuse are frequently overlooked, especially in care for marginalised groups. Through guided small-group conversations, participants will share experiences, challenge harmful norms, and consider how to shift unhelpful practices within their own contexts. The session will support participants to co-create realistic strategies that can be adapted to different roles, whether in leadership, service delivery, or advocacy. Respectful maternity care underpins quality care, maternal and infant health, and the wellbeing of those who provide it and the teams they work in. This session invites all who are working to improve care to join a conversation that centres dignity, accountability, and action.

Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) is a cornerstone of quality, rights-based maternal health services, yet institutionalizing it within health systems remains a global challenge. Despite policy commitments, many countries struggle to translate principles into consistent practice at the facility level. Systemic barrierssuch as entrenched institutional and community norms, inadequate accountability, and gaps in provider capacitycontinue to undermine efforts. Drawing on Centre for Catalyzing Change's work on promoting, designing and implementing programs on RMC in India, this session will feature an interactive dialogue on four critical questions: How do we institutionalize RMC across health systems? What works for provider behavior change? How do we address community-level norms to strengthen accountability and demand for RMC? How do we work with women to build their agency to demand RMC? During the session, participants will share successes, challenges, and innovative approaches from their contexts, generating actionable recommendations for scaling RMC globally.

Women with disabilities have the same right to MNH care as any other woman, but experience persistent health inequities, resulting in worse MNH outcomes. Evidence shows they are less likely to be registered at birth, seek antenatal care and have a skilled attendant at birth, and more likely to experience adverse birth outcomes and require a postpartum emergency visit compared to women without disabilities. This interactive Knowledge Cafe including women with disabilities as facilitators, will enable participants to explore the barriers experienced by women with disabilities in accessing MNH services, reflect on practical strategies for improving MNH outcomes for women with disabilities, and ensure they are meaningfully engaged in decision making processes in the MNH sector. Ultimately, the session will encourage participants to reflect on the role they can play in strengthening systems and programmes aimed at sustaining quality MNH care for all, ensuring women with disabilities are not left.

This Knowledge Café session will explore unconscious gender bias in interactions between female healthcare providers (FHCPs) and patients in maternal care settings. Drawing on qualitative findings from Malawi, where women reported both respectful and mistreatment experiences during sepsis care, the session will unpack how internalised gender norms, stress, and hierarchical health systems contribute to inequitable treatment. Participants will reflect on how similar dynamics manifest in their contexts and discuss strategies to improve provider empathy, communication, and patient-centred care. The host will guide the discussion around key questions: How can we recognise and address unconscious bias in our maternal health systems? What interventions have successfully improved provider–patient interactions? How can we scale respectful maternity care while supporting frontline providers? This session is ideal for implementers, policymakers, and program designers seeking peer input and shared solutions to strengthen equity and accountability in SRH service delivery across low-resource settings