Maternal and paternal satisfaction in the delivery room: a cross-sectional comparative study

OBJECTIVES: Maternal satisfaction during the birthing process has been well documented, whereas little is known about the fathers’ birth experiences. Our objective was to evaluate and compare the birth satisfaction of mothers and fathers. DESIGN: Comparative cross-sectional study. SETTING: Number of participating centres: one level III maternity centre (2813 births in 2011) in Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. PARTICIPANTS: 200 mothers and 200 accompanying fathers/mother's partner recruited 12–24 h after the birth over a 6-week period. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The Birth Satisfaction Scale (BSS) was used for the mother, and it was adapted to the father's perspective. Paired-samples t tests were used for comparing mothers and fathers for the BSS global and thematic scores. Multiple linear regressions (forward stepwise method) were made to identify predicting factors of mothers’ and fathers’ satisfaction. RESULTS: Global satisfaction scores for mothers (115.5/150) and fathers (114.4/150) were relatively high and similar (p=0.116). The analysis of subthemes showed that more distress during childbirth was reported by mothers (p<0.001), while less support (p<0.001) and care satisfaction (p<0.001) were reported by fathers. The use of epidural anaesthesia during vaginal birth was the sole concordant lower satisfaction predictor. For mothers, other satisfaction predictors were labour length, tearing and type of anaesthesia used in caesarean section. For fathers, lower satisfaction predictors were instrumental delivery, primary caesarean delivery and infant's distress factors after caesarean section. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights differences in mothers’ and fathers’ birth satisfaction and in their predictors. It is thus important to take into account the birth experience of each parent and to support parents accordingly by adapting care provision surrounding childbirth. More research on this topic from the prenatal to the postnatal period is suggested, as it might have an impact on parents’ satisfaction and on early parenthood experience.