A survey of Greek women's satisfaction of postnatal care

BACKGROUND: The research described in this paper is a cross-sectional study which surveys women who delivered their babies in a regional hospital in Greece to investigate their satisfaction with their postnatal care. This is the first published study which measures satisfaction of postnatal services in Greece. The aim of this study is to determine which factors most influence postnatal satisfaction, which areas are lacking and therefore identify specific areas which should be targeted to improve the performance of health services. METHODS: A cross sectional, quantitative study of 300 women who gave birth in a regional Greek hospital between January 2015 and July 2017 were surveyed 40 days after birth using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire contained sociodemographic and clinical characteristic questions and a selection of questions from the WOMen's views of Birth Postnatal Satisfaction Questionnaire (WOMBPNSQ). RESULTS: This study found that the dimensions with the higher satisfaction scores were “Professional support” and “Continuity”. The lower satisfaction scores were for the dimensions “Woman's health”, “Contraceptive advice” and “Social support” indicating that these are areas for improvement. The three dimensions most correlated with general satisfaction were “Time with woman”, “Feeding baby” and “Professional support”. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the important role of health professionals showing that they can enhance postnatal satisfaction by spending time with the women, giving guidance on the care of the newborn and baby feeding. Focusing on improving these areas is expected to enhance the quality of postnatal care.