Various forms of obstetric violence are occurring in the public health services of Quito, despite World Health Organization recognition of the need for perinatal care at the highest level. Programs designed to prevent and diminish obstetric violence are urgently required.

Objective: To describe three factors of obstetric violence in health centers that attend births in Quito, Ecuador: information; accompaniment; and free position. Method:A cross-sectional descriptive study of 388 women was conducted, focusing on the analysis of three factors of obstetric violence. This study forms part of a larger study that explores the experiences of women in childbirth in Quito between July 1, 2016 and July 1, 2017.Results: Of all procedures, the performance of episiotomies and the application of fundal pressure during the second stage of labor (Kristeller) stand out, as more than 35% of the women were not informed about them. In total, 121 (46.9%) women who gave birth vaginally were not given the opportunity to be accompanied by someone of their choice, neither in labor nor during delivery. While in the cases of cesarean deliveries, this increased to 116 (92.1%) women. A total of 119 (37.2%) women did not have the opportunity to choose their birthing position (or they did not know they could choose).During delivery, 138 (53.5%) women indicated the same. Conclusion:Obstetric violence is seen in all three components: information; accompaniment; and free position. K E Y W O R D S

Background A new instrument called EPREVO has been developed to measure obstetric violence in Ecuador and the objective of this work is to validate its reliability and structural dimensionality. Methods Using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with a tetrachoric correlation approach. We examined the factor structure of EPREVO, a Spanish instrument to measure obstetric violence. Kuder Richardson values were used to assess the internal consistency of the scale and dimensionality was confirmed with confirmatory factor analysis. Results Confirmatory factor analysis supported a 3-factor solution. Most item-to-factor-correlations presented moderate to strong magnitude. Total Kuder Richardson was 0.87, while for the three factors were 0.23, 0.47 and 0.94, respectively. The model’s goodness-of-fit indexes were satisfactory (χ2 = 1458.83; χ2/g.l = 2.60, p < 0.001; NNFI = 0.90; RMSEA = 0.09); most of the factor loads were greater than 0.30. A confirmatory factor analysis suggested a 3-dimensional structure of EPREVO. Conclusion The scale’s factor structure presented satisfactory validity and reliability results, except for one factor. The 30 items scale could potentially be used as an instrument for assessing obstetric violence in different healthcare settings.