Satisfaction of antenatal mothers with the care provided by nurse-midwives in an urban secondary care unit

BACKGROUND: The satisfaction of antenatal women to antenatal services has rarely been studied in India. In a nation with a maternal mortality ratio of 178/100,000 live births, it is crucial to explore all avenues to reduce it. AIMS: Our study aims to assess the pregnant women's satisfaction with regard to antenatal care services provided by nurse-midwives in an urban health center in South India. METHODS: We administered a satisfaction of care questionnaire to 200 consecutive antenatal women attending the nurse run antenatal clinics from April 2014 to November 2014. The date entry was done using Epi-Data system and the analysis by SPSS version 16. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: The absolute distribution of each of the question in the satisfaction of care questionnaire was calculated as proportions. The relationship between satisfaction of care and parity, number of visits, years of experience of the care provider and mother's education was tested using Mann–Whitney test for two independent groups. RESULTS: The mean age of the mothers was 23.5 years. More than 95% of the mothers expressed satisfaction with the number of antenatal visits components of antenatal care. Only 31.8% of the mothers were satisfied with the health education on family planning. There was no significant relationship between satisfaction of care and parity of mothers or years of experience of care provider. CONCLUSIONS: Pregnant women attending a nurse run antenatal care service have positively expressed satisfaction of care provided therein.