Introduction: improving quality of maternal care as well as patients' safety are two important issues in health-care systems. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the culture of patient safety at maternity units.

Methods: this cross-sectional study was conducted among staffs working at maternity units in seven hospitals of Ilam city, Iran. The staffs included in this study were gynecologists and midwives working in different positions including matron, supervisors, head of departments and staffs. Data were collected using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC).

Results: this study indicated that 59.1% of participants reported fair level of overall perceptions of safety and 67.1% declared that no event was reported during the past 12 months. The most positively perceived dimension of safety culture was teamwork within departments in view of managers (79.41) and personnel (81.10). However, the least positively perceived dimensions of safety culture was staffing levels.

Conclusion: the current study revealed areas of strength (teamwork within departments) and weakness (staffing, punitive responses to error) among managers and personnel. In addition, we found that staffs in Ilam's hospitals accept the patient safety culture in maternity units, but, still are far away from excellent culture of patient safety. Therefore, it is necessary to promote culture of patient's safety among professions working in the maternity units of Ilam's hospitals.