Iranian Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine

Failure to follow professional ethics in midwifery will lead to harmful risks, including an increase in maternal and infant mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate the barriers to professional ethics in midwifery clinical care from midwives ’viewpoints in hospitals specializing in obstetrics and gynecology in North Khorasan province in 2018. This cross-sectional descriptive study was performed with the participation of 141 midwives working in specialized obstetrics and gynecology hospitals in North Khorasan province, using classified sampling. The data collection tool was a questionnaire consisting of two parts: demographic information and barriers to professional ethics, in three areas: environmental and managerial and personal care. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22 and descriptive and inferential statistics. From the perspective of midwives, all three categories of environmental factors (73.94%), personal care (64.66%) and management (64.97%) were among the barriers to professional ethics. The most important barriers to professional ethics in the managerial dimension are staff shortages (80%), in the environmental dimension, biological changes in the body during work shifts (85.2%) and in the personal dimension, dissatisfaction with basic needs, such as insufficient income or adequate rest in midwifery (80.9%), was. Given the importance of observing professional ethics and the issues and problems arising from non-compliance, it is suggested that managers and officials make the necessary planning by hospitals to remove the barriers mentioned by midwives.