The Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised Indicator (BSS-RI).

Area of Science:

• Perinatal health
• Maternal satisfaction research
• Healthcare quality indicators

Background:

• Developing brief measures for birth satisfaction is crucial for evaluating perinatal services.
• Existing instruments like the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) provide a foundation for creating shorter, more accessible tools.
• Policy documents emphasize placing women at the center of the birth experience, necessitating measures that capture this perspective.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a concise birth satisfaction indicator using items from the BSS-R.
• To create a brief measure for assessing women's satisfaction with labor and birth experiences.
• To establish a potential key performance indicator for perinatal service delivery evaluation.

Main Methods:

• The six-item Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised Indicator (BSS-RI) was administered as part of the 2014 National Maternity Survey in England.
• A large, population-based sample of mothers surveyed three months post-birth.
• Psychometric properties were evaluated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, and various validity assessments on a split-half dataset.

Main Results:

• The BSS-RI demonstrated robust psychometric qualities, including validity and reliability.
• The short measure identified two key domains of birth satisfaction: 'stress and emotional response to labour and birth' and 'quality of care'.
• Analysis of a large population-based survey confirmed the measure's effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• The BSS-RI is a short, easily administered, and scored tool for assessing women's satisfaction with maternity care and their birth experience.
• This instrument is a valuable resource for researchers, service evaluators, and policymakers.
• The BSS-RI can contribute to improving the quality of perinatal care by providing actionable insights.