The Maternal Postpartum Quality of Life Instrument (MPQOL-I): development and psychometric evaluation in an exploratory sequential mixed-method study

BACKGROUND: “ Postpartum quality of life” refers to women’s satisfaction of their position in life, based on cultural status, expectations, values, attitudes, goals, and living standards. Hence the need to pay attention to more specific dimensions of quality of life in the postpartum period is being sensed. This study was conducted to develop the Maternal Postpartum Quality of Life Instrument (MPQOL-I) and assess its psychometric properties. METHODS: This methodological study was conducted in 2019–2020. This exploratory, sequential mixed-method study was conducted in two phases. The first phase is MPQOL-I development and the second phase is psychometric evaluation of the developed scale. In the quantitative (psychometric evaluation) phase, face, content, construct, convergent, and discriminant validity and reliability of the scale were tested. RESULTS: In this study, 5 factors were extracted from items through exploratory factor analysis: (1) received support, (2) sexual relations, (3) bonding with newborn, (4) breastfeeding and newborn care, and (5) the transition period. These factors accounted for 53.26% of the total variance. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis suggested the goodness-of-fit indices was acceptable. Furthermore, the internal consistency and composite reliability indices of factors were greater than 0.7. CONCLUSION: The sixteen-item Persian language MPQOL-I is a valid and reliable instrument for postpartum quality of life assessment. It includes items from different aspects of postpartum quality of life and can be used for the early diagnosis of impaired postpartum quality of life. Further studies are needed to assess the psychometric properties of MPQOL-I in different cultures and communities.