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Correspondence to Mary Ellen Stanton; munchstanton2@ gmail. com © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Reuse permitted under CC BYNC. No commercial reuse. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. Mistreatment of pregnant women, adolescent girls and persons, as well as newborns is a pervasive problem around the globe. Anecdotal reports and research evidence collected in maternity care systems from the wealthiest to poorest nations worldwide, irrespective of the state of the health systems, paint a disturbing picture. In fact, mistreatment of persons seeking maternity care, whether subtle or overt, intentional or unintentional, is being recognised as an urgent problem and a growing global movement has been created that spans the domains of healthcare research, quality and education; human rights; and civil rights advocacy. Mistreatment of parents and newborns around the time of birth is often ‘normalised’ in the hospital culture and exacerbated by the lack of awareness of patients’ rights, gender discrimination and deficiency in clinical empathy skills and humane perspective. At the individual and community level, there is tacit acceptance of mistreatment as customary and even expected. There are many instances of physical and verbal abuse, humiliation, neglect and abandonment of care of women from some segments of society, including certain racial, ethnic and religious groups, migrants, adolescents, women with disabilities and others. For people in disadvantaged groups without the agency to speak for themselves, mistreatment keeps them from accessing services and those who access services may be mistreated. The healthcare workforce, often seen as the perpetrators of the mistreatment, are themselves frequently overworked, underpaid and demoralised—while usually conducting themselves as they were taught in an environment that is disrespectful to clients and health workers alike.