South Africa Health Department to Launch Training Course Following Reports of Widespread Obstetric Violence

The South African health department is set to launch an online training course on respectful maternity care on 22 September via its Knowledge Hub platform. Fikile Ndlovu, the deputy director general for maternal health, stated that the course consists of three lessons with embedded videos and takes approximately 3.5 hours to complete. The department intends to make the training mandatory for all staff in maternity settings, including doctors, midwives, assistant nurses, cleaners, and security personnel.

The initiative follows a March survey conducted by Social Surveys Africa and commissioned by the DG Murray Trust and Embrace. The study, which focused on KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, estimated that 1.79 million women, or 60 percent of those who gave birth in those two provinces over the last 10 years, experienced physical, emotional, or verbal mistreatment by health workers. The data indicates that only one in three mistreated women knew the behavior was wrong, and only 7 percent reported it. Additionally, three quarters of surveyed women reported they were not allowed a companion during birth, and 40 percent reported a lack of curtains for privacy.

Rachel Jewkes, a specialist researcher at the South African Medical Research Council, noted that similar accounts of abuse were documented nearly 30 years ago, suggesting little has changed since the late 1990s. Jewkes emphasized that rooting out this violence requires leadership from the top. Julie Mentor of the advocacy organization Embrace added that many women continue to feel acute pain from these experiences years later. Analysis of the survey data shows that out of approximately 2.98 million births in the two provinces over a decade, which averages 817 deliveries per day, a significant portion involved disrespectful treatment.