Ethical issues in the delivery room: a field study

Purpose: Like other departments, some cases related-connected to medical ethics emerge in the delivery room, which is a specific medical unit. The purpose of this study is to identify the prevalence of these cases and the level of importance given to them, thus to describe what kind of a working environment the delivery room is in terms of medical ethics, and to find out what kind of a professional value system persons working in this unit have. Materials and Methods: The descriptive study was conducted with 87 participants with midwives, nurses, resident and specialist physicians. The participants were asked to specify the prevalence of the 18 cases in the form through 3-point Likert scale and indicate the importance they give to these cases by scoring them out of 10 points. Results: The most frequently encountered problems in the delivery room include rejection of the medical application by the pregnant-puerperal women, conflicts of authority and/or division of labour in the team, and chores given to inexperienced workers. The problems which were given most importance are that not providing newborns with the medical opportunities they need, malpractice due to applying deficient or incorrect medical practices, and demand for discharge when the patient's life is in threatening. Conclusion: The most frequently encountered problem category in the delivery room is the autonomy conflict; the dilemma concerning inability to provide benefit and/or to avoid maleficence is relatively less, but it is worth noting. Although they are sensitive about respect for autonomy, they sometimes show a tendency to paternalism. Related-connected problems are not experienced much, but the principle of justice is accepted as an important reference.