[Satisfaction with perinatal care in Vysočina region in the period between October 2013 and September 2014]

To assess women's satisfaction with perinatal care provided in maternity hospitals in Vysočina region, to identify the areas with high satisfaction scores as well as those requiring improvement, and to describe the factors influencing women's satisfaction, i. e. dissatisfaction with the care provided during labor and birth and the early postpartal period.

Original study.

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philo-sophy, Charles University, Prague.

The satisfaction survey was conducted in all maternity hospitals in Vysočina region (Jihlava, Havlíčkův Brod, Třebíč, Pelhřimov, Nové město na Moravě) during the period between October 2013 and September 2014. All women who had given birth in those hospitals during the period were approached and asked to participate in this survey. The women evaluated the perinatal care not before 58 days after birth, so that the evaluation of perinatal care did not take place directly during their stay at maternity hospital. In total, 1366 women took part in the study. The original Czech questionnaire KLI-P was used for the data collection. The KLI-P measures psychosocial climate of maternity hospitals on the following six scales: helpfulness and empathy of caregivers; control and involvement in decision-making; communication of information and availability of caregivers; dismissive attitude and lack of interest; physical comfort and services. The satisfaction rates with component dimensions of intrapartal and postpartal care at the maternity hospitals in Vysočina region were compared to the satisfaction rates for the Czech Republic as a whole as obtained in our previous study. We used the Kruskal-Wallis test for this comparison. The ordinal logistical regression (cumulative logit model) was used to identify predictors of women's satisfaction with intrapartum and postpartum care in Vysočina region.

The women who delivered at maternity hospitals in Vysočina region were significantly more satisfied with all dimensions of care received both at delivery (DU) and after-birth unit (ABU) as compared to the average parturient's satisfaction in the Czech Republic as specified in our previous study. The best rated scale at DU in Vysočina region was Physical comfort and services (93% vs. 85% for the whole country; P < 0,0001), while the worst evaluation score received the scale Control and involvement in decision-making (75% vs. 58% for the whole country; P < 0,0001). At ABU, the best rated scale was Control and involvement in decision-making (95% vs. 89% for the whole country; P < 0,0001), while the lowest evaluation score was found for the scale Physical comfort and services (85% vs. 76% for the whole Republic; P < 0,0001). The women perceived generally the caregivers as helpful and kind but they often missed sufficient emotional support. They considered the information received easy to understand, but they would welcome more information in general. Among the most important determinants of parturients satisfaction with care at DU were kind and helpful attitude of midwives (P < 0,0001), confidence in physicians (P < 0,0001), sufficient provision of information (P = 0,0016), pleasant appearance of the delivery room (P = 0,0010), kind and helpful attitude of physicians (P = 0,018). Among the most important determinants of satisfaction with care at ABU were sufficient provision of information (P = 0,0007), equipment of the room (P = 0,0014), informations regarding the care for the newborn (P = 0,0013), emotional support (P = 0,0039) and confidence in staff employed in newborn care (P = 0,025).

Satisfaction with care received at maternity hospitals in Vysočina region was rated very high. However, despite its high quality, the perinatal care in Vysočina region suffers from several shortcomings. Regarding the significance of the individual determinants of parturient's satisfaction, improving the quality of care requires first of all better provision of information both during the labor and postpartal period. It would be beneficial to provide the health care professionals with the opportunities of attending a training in breastfeeding support and communication and of taking part in clinical supervision.