Author’s response to reviews Title: Midwives' respect and disrespect of women during facility-based childbirth in urban Tanzania: a qualitative study Authors:

Title: Midwives' respect and disrespect of women during facility-based childbirth in urban Tanzania: a qualitative study Authors: Kana Shimoda ([email protected]) Shigeko Horiuchi ([email protected]) Sebalda Leshabari ([email protected]) Yoko Shimpuku ([email protected]) Version: 2 Date: 13 Dec 2017 Author’s response to reviews: POINT-BY-POINT RESPONSES TO REVIEWERS‟ COMMENTS RESPONSES TO REVIEWER 1 We wish to express our appreciation to you for your insightful comments which have helped us significantly improve the manuscript. All the indicated line numbers in our responses below are according to the track changed version of the revised manuscript. Comment 1) “...women's underutilization of health facilities” [Background] If possible add a few more references as there much more evidence on this. Response Thank you for calling our attention regarding this important point. In accordance with your comment, we added the following statement citing three references to indicate more lines of evidence regarding the underutilization of health facilities (Page 7, lines 97 to Page 8, line 101) “Inadequate and unsafe care by healthcare providers including disrespectful, abusive and neglectful care, and the negative experiences of women particularly during childbirth that violate the trust between women and healthcare providers, have also been identified as important contributors to the women‟s underutilization of health facilities [6 8]”