Determination of Obstetric Violence and Affecting Factors: A Cross‐Sectional Research

Abstract Introduction: Obstetric violence, which affects maternal and infant health negatively, is accepted as a violation of human rights and a serious public health problem. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to determine experiences of obstetric violence and the affecting factors among women who had childbirth. Methods: This descriptive and cross‐sectional study included 200 women who had vaginal delivery. Data were collected within the first 24 hours following childbirth using the Personal Information Form, the Labor-related Characteristics Form, and the Obstetric Violence Identification Form. Results: Results showed that 25,5% of participating women who had vaginal delivery were exposed to verbal violence, 37,2 % were exposed to psycho-emotional violence, and all of them were exposed to physical violence. It was found that participating women perceived the negative verbal and psycho-emotional behaviors they experienced as violence, but they did not perceive most of the physical interventions as violence. Only the place of living among socio-demographic characteristics showed a statistically significant difference with the type of obstetric violence (p<0,05). As for the obstetric characteristics, only receiving information before labor demonstrated a statistically significant difference with exposure to verbal obstetric violence (p<0,05). Of all the participants, 42,5% were slightly satisfied with their childbirth experience. Conclusions: This study found that women were exposed to obstetric violence and had low levels of satisfaction with their childbirth experience. Besides, women can be victims of obstetric violence regardless of their age, education level, socio-economic condition, and obstetric features.