Your Rights As a Birthing Mother
- You and your baby have the right to receive continuous support during labor and birth from those you choose.
- You have the right to be communicated with in a language and in terminology that you understand.
- You have the right to be offered drug-free pain-relief during labor. To be given a choice and explained the benefits of these measures.
- You and your baby have the right to evidenced-based emergency treatment for life-threatening complications.
- You and your baby have the right to be treated with respect and dignity.
- You have the right to informed consent and to informed refusal for any treatment, procedure or other aspect of care for yourself and your baby.
- You and your baby have the right to receive care that enhances and optimizes the normal processes of pregnancy, birth and postnatal care
- You and your baby have the right to receive care consisting of evidence-based practices proven to be beneficial in supporting the normal physiology of labor and birth.
- You have the right to be involved in and fully informed about care for yourself and your baby.
- You and your baby have the right to be cared for by a small number of caregivers who collaborate across disciplinary, cultural and institutional boundaries and who provide consultations and facilitate transfers of care when necessary to appropriate institutions and specialists.
- You and your baby have the right to receive care that seeks to avoid potentially harmful procedures and practices.
- You and your baby have the right to be cared for by midwifes with knowledge of and the skills to support breastfeeding.
- You have the right to be educated concerning the benefits and the management of breastfeeding and to be shown how to breastfeed and how to maintain lactation, even if you and your baby must be separated for medical reasons
- You and your baby have the right to initiate breastfeeding within the first 30 minutes after birth, to remain together skin-to-skin for at least the first hour, to stay together 24 hours a day and to breastfeed on demand.
- Your baby has the right to be given no artificial teats or pacifiers and to only be given breast milk, unless medically indicated.
- You have the right to be referred to a breastfeeding support group, if available, upon discharge from the birthing facility.
- You have the right to receive supportive antenatal andpostnatally and newborn care that addresses your physical and emotional health within the context of family relationships and your community environment.
- You have the right to receive education regarding family planning and as well as access to family planning options.
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