title: Postnatal care: development of a psychometric multidimensional satisfaction questionnaire (the WOMBPNSQ) to assess women's views.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Postnatal care is the neglected area of pregnancy care, despite repeated calls to improve it. Changes would require assessment, which should include women's views. No suitable satisfaction questionnaire exists to enable this.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop a multidimensional psychometric postnatal satisfaction self-completion instrument.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten maternity services in south west England from 2006-2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  Sources for questions were literature review, fieldwork, and related published instruments. Principal components analysis with varimax rotation was used to develop the final WOMen's views of Birth Postnatal Satisfaction Questionnaire (WOMBPNSQ) version. Validity and internal reliability were assessed. Questionnaires were mailed 6-8 weeks postnatally (with one reminder).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The WOMBPNSQ comprises 36 seven-point Likert questions (13 dimensions including general satisfaction). Of 300 women, 166 (55.3%) replied; of these 155 (95.1 %) were white, 152 (93.8%) were married or cohabiting, 135 (81.3%) gave birth in a consultant unit, 129 (78.6%) had a vaginal delivery; and 100 (60.6%) were multiparous. The 12 specific dimensions were: support from professionals or partner, or social support; care from GP and health visitor; advice on contraception, feeding baby, the mother's health; continuity of care; duration of inpatient stay; home visiting; pain after birth. These have internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha varying from 0.624 to 0.902). Various demographic and clinical characteristics were significantly associated with specific dimensions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  WOMBPNSQ could be used to assess existing or planned changes to maternity services or as a screening instrument, which would then enable in-depth qualitative assessment of areas of dissatisfaction. Its convergent validity and test-retest reliability are still to be assessed but are an improvement upon existing postnatal satisfaction questionnaires.
authors.affiliation: East Somerset Research Consortium, Westlake Surgery, West Coker, Somerset. research@esrec.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Lindsay F P
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Smith
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires