en Midwifery Original Article <div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><b>Background:</b> Respectful maternity care (RMC) involves providing healthcare that upholds women&#39;s dignity, privacy, and confidentiality. It also entails protecting women from harm, supporting informed decision-making, and providing continuous support throughout labor and delivery. This study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and practices of midwives working in hospitals in Golestan Province regarding respectful maternity care.<br> <b>Methods:</b> In a cross-sectional study conducted in 2023, a total of 137 midwives working in the maternity wards of hospitals in Golestan Province, Iran, were selected through census sampling. Data were collected using the Respectful Maternity Care questionnaire, which covers emotional support, safe care, and the prevention of mistreatment. The data were analyzed using SPSS 18 and the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, generalized linear models (GLMs), and Wilcoxon signed-rank test, with the significance level set at P < 0.05.<br> <b>Results:</b> The median (interquartile range) knowledge and practice scores for respectful maternity care were 95.62 (13.04) and 90.21 (11.41), respectively. Knowledge scores were significantly higher than practice scores for the overall score (P < 0.001) and in the domains of providing emotional support (P < 0.001) and preventing mistreatment (P < 0.001). In the generalized linear regression analysis, the RMC knowledge score was significantly associated with education level (B = &minus;67.60, 95% CI: &minus;132.82 to &minus;2.39, P = 0.04), whereas the RMC practice score was significantly associated with the overall knowledge score (B = 246.73, 95% CI: 152.94&ndash;340.52, P < 0.001).<br> <b>Conclusion</b>: Midwives demonstrated high levels of knowledge and practice regarding respectful maternity care. However, discrepancies between knowledge and practice in some domains highlight the need for interventions that facilitate the translation of knowledge into routine clinical practice.</span></span></div> Midwife (Midwifery), Respect, Maternal Care ( Maternal Behavior), Awareness, Professional Performance (Professional Practice) 0 0 http://nmj.goums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-2292-2&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Maryam Ghanbarzadeh maryam_ghanbarzade@yahoo.com 100319475328460018318 100319475328460018318 No Counseling, and Reproductive Health Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran; School of Nursing and Midwifery, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Navisa Sadat Seyedghasemi seyedghasemi_n@yahoo.com 100319475328460018319 100319475328460018319 No Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Health, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Narjes Sadat Borghei borghei2006@yahoo.com 100319475328460018320 100319475328460018320 No Counseling, and Reproductive Health Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran; School of Nursing and Midwifery, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Tahmineh Saboori Rostami tahminehsaboorii@gmail.com 100319475328460018321 0009-0009-3516-1641 No Counseling, and Reproductive Health Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran 2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran Sedigheh Moghasemi Moghasemi.s@goums.ac.ir 100319475328460018322 100319475328460018322 Yes Counseling, and Reproductive Health Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran 2. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran