Still behind the glass wall? Swedish fathers' satisfaction with postnatal care

To describe new fathers' satisfaction with postnatal care after the introduction of a more family-centered model and to study factors related to fathers' overall satisfaction with postnatal care.

Two cohorts of fathers who had a live-born baby during a 15 weeks period in 2004 and 2006.

A Swedish hospital. Postnatal care options were traditional postnatal ward, early discharge, cocare at neonatal ward, and from 2006 a family suite on a hotel ward.

Two hundred and eighty-four fathers whose babies were born in 2004 and 356 fathers whose babies were born in 2006.

Data were collected using a questionnaire and descriptive statistical odds ratios with 95% confidence interval and logistic regression analyses were used.

Six hundred and forty (64%) fathers completed the questionnaire. There was no improvement between the 2 years in satisfaction with the content of postnatal care, although fathers who stayed in the family suite on the hotel ward were more satisfied with the postnatal care over all. The following factors were most significant for predicting dissatisfaction with postnatal care: no support from staff, not being treated nicely, dissatisfaction with the environment, lack of medical check-ups for the mother, and visiting hours.

A true family perspective should be applied in postnatal care and the new parents viewed as a family unit, not as medical cases only. Staff working in postnatal wards should be given the opportunity to involve fathers in postnatal care.