"Us with them": Co-designing a caesarean section consent and debriefing intervention in West Cameroon

The study describes a participatory design process for an intervention to improve the quality of care during caesarean section in the West Region of Cameroon, where informed consent and debriefing were found to be suboptimal or absent. From February to May 2025, a co-design process was conducted with three stakeholder groups: 59 post-caesarean section women and community representatives, 78 frontline healthcare providers, and 29 directors of public and private hospitals. The process consisted of four phases: planning, conducting, evaluating, and reporting. The final intervention comprised four components: in-service training, a standard operating procedure with a harmonized consent form and debriefing checklist, supportive supervision and clinical audit. More than 80 percent of participants rated the process as good or very good. All stakeholder groups supported women's autonomous decision-making and the intervention was deemed feasible.