CROACIA
In its work, RODA has become a key stakeholder in Croatia regarding adequate maternal leave compensation, the right to maternal leave, medically assisted conception, pregnancy and birthing conditions, breastfeeding promotion, education and counselling, support for parents and future parents, and child traffic safety.
Despite improvements over the past ten years to make Croatia’s maternity care system more mother-friendly and evidence-based, significant improvements are still needed. RODA's recommendations include implementing the ten steps of the Mother-Friendly Hospital Initiative starting with pilot sites and then nationally, expanding midwives' practice and independence inside and outside maternity hospitals, especially in hard-to-reach areas, adopting evidence-based practices, integrating patient communication training into healthcare curricula and making it an annual requirement, improving consent-obtaining practices, and providing high-quality, accessible, evidence-based information to pregnant women antenatally to enable informed decision-making.
