Job satisfaction of maternity care providers in the Netherlands: Does working in or with a birth centre influence job satisfaction?

INTRODUCTION: In the Netherlands birth centres have recently become an alternative option as places where women with uncomplicated pregnancies can give birth. This article focusses on the job satisfaction of three groups of maternity care providers (community midwives, clinical care providers and maternity care assistants) working in or with a birth centre compared to those working only in a hospital or at home. METHODS: In 2015, an existing questionnaire was adapted and distributed to maternity care providers and 4073 responses were received. Using factor analyses, two composite measures were constructed, a Composite Job Satisfaction scale and an Assessment-of-Working-in-or-with-a-Birth-Centre scale. Differences between groups were tested with Student’s t-test and MANOVA with post hoc test and linear regression analyses. RESULTS: The overall score on the Composite Job Satisfaction scale did not differ between community midwives or clinical care providers working in or with a birth centre and those working in a different setting. For maternity care assistants there was a small but significantly higher score for those not working in a birth centre. Maternity care assistants’ overall job satisfaction score was higher than that of both other groups. In a linear regression analysis working or not working in or with a birth centre was related to the overall job satisfaction score, but repeated for the three professional groups separately, this relation was only found for maternity care assistants. CONCLUSIONS: Job satisfaction is generally high, but, except for maternity care assistants, not related to the setting (working or not working in or with a birth centre).