Background : Pregnant women’s participation in safe delivery is associated with safety assurance and improvement. Safety and care quality improvement in developed countries has so far been based on research and clinical evidence. Nonetheless, stakeholders’ preferences and expectations were not much taken into account. This study aimed to explore midwives’ expectations from pregnant women regarding their participation in safe delivery.
Methods : This qualitative study was conducted in 2019 in three public hospitals in Urmia, Iran. Data were collected through 24 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 24 midwives. Sampling was done purposively and continued up to data saturation. Data were analyzed through Graneheim and Lundman’s qualitative content analysis.
Results: Midwives’ expectations from pregnant women regarding their participation in safe delivery were grouped into the two main themes of effective communication (with two main categories) and empowerment of pregnant women (with three categories). The five main categories of these two themes were client’s interaction with midwife, confidence in midwife, readiness for delivery, health literacy improvement, and participation in safe behaviors, respectively.
Conclusions : Understanding midwives’ expectations regarding pregnant women participation in safe delivery is important to the development of policies for care quality and safety improvement in perinatal care. Keywords : Patient participation, Safe delivery, Qualitative study