Development and psychometric properties of the Respectful Maternity Care Scale (RMCS)

Aims/Background: The Respectful Maternity Care Scale (RMCS) was developed specifically to assess the health care that women receive during pregnancy, labour and the postnatal period. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and reliability of the RMCS.Design/Methods: This study used a methodological design. The RMCS, a self-report instrument, was developed in consultation with professionals and women who had given birth, based on the literature. It was tested for content and construct validity. Reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha, test-retest method, and adjusted item-total correlation. The study sample consisted of 405 women between 6 weeks and 12 months postpartum who were admitted to a family health centre in Istanbul between April and June 2023.Results: The scale's content validity index is 0.92. The scale consists of 29 items and 3 sub-dimensions, which explain 61% of the total variance. chi(2)/df was less than 5 and RMSEA was less than 0.08, which confirms the validity of this model. The corrected item-total correlations were acceptable, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.96.Conclusion: The RMCS has been shown to be valid and reliable and can be used to assess respectful maternity care among Turkish women.