Childbirth abuse is rife. So why don’t we see it?

In the past 10 years, 1.79-million women who gave birth in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng faced abuse during their deliveries, findings from a survey conducted by Social Surveys Africa, and commissioned by the DG Murray Trust and Embrace, show.

It works out to 490 women being mistreated during labour every day.

But only a third knew that how they were treated was wrong — and just 7% reported it.

What do the numbers say about what’s going on in public maternity care — and what can be done to fix it? We dive into the data.

A survey on obstetric violence found that around 1.79-million women who gave birth in the past 10 years in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng were mistreated.

In today’s newsletter , Mia Malan asks what these enormous numbers actually look like in real life.

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A n online training course on respectful maternity care — which may become compulsory for all staff working with pregnant women — is set to be launched on 22 September on the health department’s Knowledge Hub platform, says the health department.

The course consists of three lessons, which include embedded videos, and takes about 3.5 hours to complete, says Fikile Ndlovu, the deputy director general for maternal health.

Health workers will be able to complete it on their own time, at a pace that suits them, says Ndlovu.

“We wish to make it a mandatory course for not only midwives but all health service providers working in maternity settings because respectful care starts with attitude from all officials, whether a security at the gate, assistant nurses or cleaners in the wards up to midwives and doctors,” Ndlovu told Bhekisisa .

It’s long overdue, the March findings from a commissioned by the DG Murray Trust and Embrace survey on obstetric violence , and conducted by Social Surveys Africa, in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng show.

Over the past 10 years, an estimated 1.79-million women — 60% of everyone who gave birth in these two provinces — had been mistreated by health workers during labour, whether physically, emotionally or verbally.

READ MORE: The cruel collusion that devastates young doctors learning how to deliver babies Only one in three women who were mistreated — from being slapped to being shouted at, examined roughly or ignored during labour — knew that health workers’ behaviour was wrong, and only 7% reported it.