Women’s satisfaction and perception of control in childbirth in three Arab countries

Abstract

Women's satisfaction and perceived control in childbirth are important attributes of the childbirth experience and quality of care indicators. This article presents findings from the pre-intervention phase of a multi-centre implementation study in Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, to introduce a labour companionship model in these countries. A sample of 2620 women giving birth in three public teaching hospitals from November 2014 to July 2015 in Beirut and Mansoura, and from November 2014 to April 2015 in Damascus were interviewed by trained field workers. Additional information was abstracted from medical charts. An adapted version of the Mackey Childbirth Satisfaction Rating Scale was used to measure women's satisfaction and the shortened version of the Labor Agentry Scale was used to assess perception of control. The total satisfaction score was high in all sites with the lowest being in Egypt. Perceived control was directly related to satisfaction. Women with low education levels had higher levels of childbirth satisfaction. Women who had fewer children from Egypt and Lebanon, and those who received care by a team including both male and female physicians in the Syrian hospital were more likely to be dissatisfied than their counterparts. Variations in the management and provision of care between the three countries may explain the differences in satisfaction levels observed. Further qualitative research is needed to deepen our understanding of the concepts of control and satisfaction in the Arab culture as well as to establish the factors associated with women's positive childbirth experiences to inform the provision of quality maternity care.

Implementation of a labour companionship model in three public hospitals in Arab middle‐income countries

“…It is a 34‐item, five‐point Likert scale, with six subdimensions addressing self, partner, baby, nurse/midwife, physician and a general rating scale . It was translated to Arabic and adapted to a 31‐item scale ; (iii) The shortened 10‐item Labour Agentry Scale (LAS) with seven‐point Likert scale was used to assess women's perception of control during labour . The scale was translated to Arabic and back‐translated to English.…”

Patient satisfaction with peri-partum care at Bertha Gxowa district hospital, South Africa

“… 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 Previous studies on patient satisfaction show that factors that influence client satisfaction with regard to care involve satisfaction with the overall health service, health workers’ communication, health workers’ attitude and the hospital environment. 5 , 6 Many countries, including South Africa, have therefore designed strategies that focus on patients’ needs and better communication to improve patient satisfaction. One of the strategies implemented in South Africa to achieve this was the introduction of the Bath-Pele principles.…”

Women's control and participation in decision-making during childbirth in relation to satisfaction

“…Women should be encouraged to give birth in a position they deem comfortable (Nieuwenhuijze et al, 2013 study showed very low satisfaction (34%) with this factor (Takács & Seidlerová, 2013). In a study by Kabakian-Khasholian et al (2017), a high level of satisfaction with childbirth and an average level of control perception were demonstrated. Similarly, maternal control was identified as the most important predictor of birth satisfaction in the study by Nilsson et al (2013).…”