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Description
The aim of the Project is to strengthen the base for the improvement of parturient women rights in Lithuania. Although Lithuania’s quantitative indicators of birth outcomes are high, a significant number of women remember their births as a negative or even traumatic experience. Women in labour are a vulnerable group in two ways: as women in a rather patriarchal society, and as patients at a very sensitive time during childbirth.
In the course of the project, an information campaign on birth experience in Lithuania will be carried out: a large-scale comprehensive survey of mothers will be conducted, the collected data will be analysed, systematized and presented on a dedicated website and published on social media and mass media. Also, during the round table discussions with the stakeholders and the public presentations in various Lithuanian cities, we will seek solutions to improve the situation and to prepare recommendations for changes in policies and procedures. Target groups are the following: pregnant and parturient women, their families, medical and administrative staff of the hospitals, officers from the Ministry of Health.
Results of the Project: more pregnant and parturient women and their families will be informed about patients’ rights and their importance; hospitals and Ministry of Health staff will be acquainted with the current situation from perspective of the patients and will be able to make changes in the field of maternity care, with greater regard for maternal rights. The aim is to create a bigger and smoother dialogue between all relevant target groups, and to reduce the tensions that arise periodically.
Summary of project results
The project sought to strengthen the base for the improvement of parturient women rights in Lithuania. Although Lithuania’s quantitative indicators of birth outcomes are high, a significant number of women remember their births as a negative or even traumatic experience. Women in labour are a vulnerable group in two ways: as women in a rather patriarchal society, and as patients at a very sensitive time during childbirth.
The project researched the birth experiences from the viewpoint of women who had given birth in Lithuania and presented the analysis of the situation and recommendations to improve the rights of the patients and the medical system itself. An information campaign on birth experience in Lithuania was carried out: the results of the survey "My Birth" were presented on a dedicated website and published on social media and mass media. Round table discussions with the stakeholders and the public presentations in various Lithuanian cities were organized, where solutions to improve the situation and to prepare recommendations for changes in policies and procedures were discussed.
The results of the survey "My Birth" empowered women and shed more light on the issues related to the rights of women during labour. One of the main results of the survey - understanding of the importance of subjective experience - has become a pillar to communicate problems of the maternal health system through the human rights lenses. More pregnant and parturient women and their families were informed about patients’ rights and their importance; hospitals and the Ministry of Health staff were acquainted with the current situation from the perspective of the patients and the need for greater regard for maternal rights. In addition, the survey and a website where one can compare hospitals along their practices attributed to the stronger visibility of MGIS as experts, the the partnership with the Human rights committee, representatives of the medical system and other NGOs.