BACKGROUND:
The World Health Organization has highlighted that respectful maternity care is a vital role and a standard for enhancing the quality of maternal and newborn care.

OBJECTIVES:
The purpose of this practice guideline was to provide midwives with recommendations to effectively facilitate excellence in midwifery competence to ensure women’s and midwives’ empowerment, resourcefulness, and resilience during the practice of maternity care.

METHODS:
The draft guideline was developed using literature from a scoping review process conducted as part of a phase in a PhD study. The practice guideline underwent two rounds of evaluation and validation. Seven experts, all PhD holders participated in the appraisal and review process. Six of the experts were lecturers at higher education institutions while one expert was a private midwife working for a private ambulance service in the United Kingdom. The experts evaluated the guideline using the Appraisal of Guidelines, Research and Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument which was set at an 80% threshold score to critique and assess the quality of recommendations. The AGREE II instrument had 13 items grouped into five domains.

RESULTS:
The guideline scored above the 80% threshold in the second round of review and validation in the five domains. Domain one assessed the scope and purpose of the guideline and had a combined score of 90%. The second domain assessed the stakeholder involvement and scored 87%. The third domain assessed the rigour of development and scored 82%. The fourth domain assessed the clarity of presentation, the combined score was 88% and finally, the fifth domain assessed the applicability and was scored 90%.

CONCLUSIONS:
Overall, the expert evaluators found the practice guideline to be useful, relevant for the midwifery profession and clear for implementation by the midwife practitioners.

KEY MESSAGE:
Respectful maternity care guideline empowers midwives. Poster session 2 (Group A)