In a new episode of the Quality Talks podcast, Adrienne Strong, a medical anthropologist and Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida shares her observations of a birth companionship programme in Western Tanzania. She explains how the programme, designed to improve both the women’s experience of care and clinical outcomes failed to reduce the disrespect and abuse directed at the patients. In fact, in some cases, the birth companions themselves justified the mistreatment or took part in it, targeting the very women they were meant to support.