Background: Following the compilation of ethical codes of midwifery in the health system of Iran, the knowledge about compliance with these codes in different groups of midwives working in the health system, both public and private, can provide an appropriate feedback on the status of compliance of such codes and in a more general attitude, undertaking implementation of professional ethics and the underlying factors can be scrutinized more rigorously.

Methods: In a descriptive-analytic study based on self-reported observance of professional ethics, 70 midwives participating in continuous medical education programs at Avicenna Fertility Center completed a Likert scale researcher-designed questionnaire including 65 questions in different fields of ethics codes. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using Kendall Rank Correlation Coefficient, independent t-test and variance analysis.

Results: The mean age of the participants was 44 years. 82% of the participants had a bachelor's degree and the rate of observance of professional ethics codes in this study in the range of -2 to 2 times was 0.12±1.68. There was no significant relationship between observing ethical codes with educational level, income level, professional ethics training, participation in professional ethics training workshops and activities in different parts of the health system. The only significant correlation was the interest rate to midwifery with observing ethical codes in the area of providing services to the client (r=0.257 with p=0.048).

Conclusion: It seems that self-report assessment in professional ethics is based on extrapolation of professional ethics observance by the hierarchy. Also, in the current assessment, there was no meaningful relationship between professional ethics education and knowledge with observance of midwifery ethics codes, which indicates the necessity of implementing assessments as well as more effective teaching in the field of ethics observance.