Service quality attributes of maternity care services: the prospective consumer's perspective

The application of the repertory grid technique made it possible to capture the mental categorization by which maternity care services are judged. Conceptualization of the expectation standard, defined as estimates of anticipated performance, led to the identification of 14 attributes. These include: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, relationship, tangibles, control, cost, naturalness and quality. The definitions made use of the prospective consumer's own verbal labels. In addition, it was found that maternity care services were not perceived as one continuous process. Three distinct categorizations were identified, that is: before, during, and after the birth of the baby. This suggests that prospective consumers employ the service quality attributes, according to one of the above.