Role of verbal and non-verbal communication of health care providers in general satisfaction with birth care: A cross-sectional study in government health settings of Erbil City, Iraq

Abstract

Background Effective communication by maternity care staff can help a woman during labor and birth have a positive birth experience. Nothing is known about this topic in Iraqi Kurdistan, therefore, this study assessed: 1) The level of women's satisfaction regarding verbal and non-verbal communication of midwives and physicians in the delivery room and 2) the association between this satisfaction level and socio-demographic and obstetric characteristics of the women and their general satisfaction with care during labor and delivery.Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on a convenient sample of 1196 women recruited between January and March 2019 from Erbil city, Iraq, who gave birth in the last year. Data were collected from women through direct interview. A questionnaire which included sociodemographic, obstetrical information and 28 items related to verbal and non-verbal communication of physicians and midwives in the delivery room was used. Chi-square tests were used to find the association between dependent and independent variables.Results Although 58.4% of the women were generally satisfied with communication of midwives and physicians in the delivery room, a large percentage (41.6%) were not satisfied. Only 14.6% and 27.3% of the women were completely satisfied with verbal and non-verbal communication of health care providers, respectively. There was a statistically significant association between women's satisfaction with care during labor and their satisfaction with health care providers' communication; 70.4% of women who were satisfied with care during birth were also satisfied with the communication of delivery room staff. There were statistically significant associations between the satisfaction of women with the communication of midwives and physicians and their level of education, parity, having stillbirth or neonatal death, and the setting of the last delivery. Conclusions Women's satisfaction with verbal and nonverbal communication of health care providersin the delivery room is associated with their satisfaction with birth care. Improving communication skills of health care providers can be a considerable part of improving care in delivery room. Plain English SummaryEffective communication by maternity care staff is an important factor for women's satisfaction with care during labor and delivery. This study assessed women's satisfaction with communication from health care providers including physicians and midwives in the delivery room. 1196 women participated. Results show that a relatively small percent of women were completely satisfied with the communication, although more than half of the women were generally satisfied with the communication. 70.4% of those women who were satisfied with care during birth were also satisfied with communication of the delivery room staff. We concluded that women's satisfaction with verbal and nonverbal communication of health care providers in the delivery room is associated with their satisfaction with birth care.

Women’s experiences throughout the birthing process in health facilities in Arab countries: a systematic review

“…The database and hand search of reference lists resulted in 183 studies with nine duplicate studies, giving 174 studies. The title and abstract screening yielded 32 studies that were eligible for full-text extraction, resulting in 11 included studies [ 43 – 53 ]. The list of full text excluded with reasons is presented in Additional file 2 .…”

“…Women’s satisfaction was reported as the primary outcome in six studies [ 43 , 47 , 50 – 53 ] and three as the secondary outcome [ 43 , 44 , 53 ]. Satisfaction was measured differently in each of these six studies.…”

“…Considerable variation was observed among the tools used to measure mistreatment. Four studies reported developing their own tools; three were tested/piloted [ 44 , 51 , 53 ], and one was not tested/piloted [ 43 ]. Four studies were translated to Arabic [ 46 , 47 , 46 – 47 ], one study reported only adaptation [ 52 ], one study reported only testing[ 48 ], and one study adapted and tested/piloted a tool used in an Arab country [ 45 ].…”