Know Your Rights in Pregnancy and Birth
Do you know your legal and ethical rights during maternity care?
The Childbirth Connection’s publication The Rights of Childbearing Women outlines key protections designed to help women make informed decisions and receive respectful, evidence-based care.
There are serious underlying problems in the United States maternal care system, and lying at the core of most issues is that most families are not provided access to information and are not offered informed consent.
Evidence-based, respectful care is a right that should be given equally to every woman.
Here are a few of the rights outlined in the article:
Every woman has the right to health care before, during, and after pregnancy and childbirth.
Every woman and infant has the right to receive care consistent with current scientific evidence.
Every woman has the right to choose a midwife or physician.
Every woman has the right to choose her birth setting.
Every woman has the right to leave her maternity caregiver and select another.
Every woman has the right to information about her provider’s professional identity and qualifications.
Every woman has the right to communicate with caregivers and receive all care in privacy.
Every woman has the right to receive maternity care that identifies and addresses social and behavioral factors that affect her health and that of her baby.
Every woman has the right to full and clear information about benefits, risks, costs, drugs, tests, and treatments offered.
Every woman has the right to accept or refuse procedures, drugs, tests and treatments.
