Upholding Rights Under COVID-19: The Respectful Maternity Care Charter.
R. Rima Jolivet, Charlotte Warren, Pooja Sripad, Elena Ateva, Jewel Gausman, Kate M. Mitchell, Hagar Palgi-Hacker, Emma Sacks, Ana Langer
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has strained health systems and exacerbated system deficiencies and subpopulation vulnerabilities, thus exposing the damaging impact of inequities, in every society It has also dramatically altered maternal newborn health care delivery;some of the efforts to curb the virus violate the rights of women, their newborns, and families Human rights are indivisible and universal Rights frameworks provide a firm legal and ethical foundation to guide policy and practice in a pandemic Solutions that uphold fundamental human rights and best clinical practices, including infection control, contribute to stronger health and human rights outcomes overall The Respectful Maternity Care Charter, published in 2011 and updated in 2019, articulates 10 fundamental rights of childbearing women and newborns based on widely accepted human rights instruments, and provides a framework for high-quality care that supports and upholds the dignity of all parties