title: Maternal satisfaction with organized perinatal care in Serbian public hospitals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Understanding the experiences and expectations of women across the continuum of antenatal, perinatal, and postnatal care is important to assess the quality of maternal care and to determine problematic areas which could be improved. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with maternal satisfaction with hospital-based perinatal care in Serbia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Our survey was conducted from January 2009 to January 2010 using a 28-item, self-administered questionnaire. The sample consisted of 50% of women who expected childbirths during the study period from all 76 public institutions with obstetric departments in Serbia. The following three composite outcome variables were constructed: satisfaction with technical and professional aspects of care; communication and interpersonal aspects of care; and environmental factors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed 34,431 completed questionnaires (84.2% of the study sample). The highest and lowest average satisfaction scores (4.43 and 3.25, respectively) referred to the overall participation of midwives during delivery and the quality of food served in the hospital, respectively. Younger mothers and multiparas were less concerned with the environmental conditions (OR = 0.55, p = 0.006; OR = 1.82, p = 0.004). Final model indicated that mothers informed of patients' rights, pregnancy and delivery through the Maternal Counseling Service were more likely to be satisfied with all three outcome variables. The highest value of the Pearson's coefficient of correlation was between the overall satisfaction score and satisfaction with communication and interpersonal aspects of care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study illuminated the importance of interpersonal aspects of care and education for maternal satisfaction. Improvement of the environmental conditions in hospitals, the WHO program, Baby-friendly Hospital, and above all providing all pregnant women with antenatal education, are recommendations which would more strongly affect the perceptions of quality and satisfaction with perinatal care in Serbian public hospitals by women.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Social Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Dr Subotica 15, 11 000 Belgrade, Serbia. bmatejic@med.bg.ac.rs.
authors.forename: Bojana
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Matejić
authors.forename: Milena Šantrić
authors.initials: MŠ
authors.lastname: Milićević
authors.forename: Vladimir
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vasić
authors.forename: Bosiljka
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Djikanović
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D005521:Food Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006779:Hospitals, Public / Q000592:standards*; D006797:Housekeeping, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010298:Parity; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011181:Postnatal Care; D011295:Prenatal Care; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D055771:Serbia; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014038:Toilet Facilities / Q000592:standards; D055815:Young Adult