Development of the short form Iranian women childbirth experience questionnaire: a confirmatory factor analysis approach item reduction

INTRODUCTION: Considering that childbirth experience has short- and long-term effects on women’s lives, it is necessary to examine their delivery experiences. This study aimed to prepare the short form of a 52-item Iranian women’s childbirth experience questionnaire with seven factors: professional support, preparation, control, positive perception, baby, family support, and fear. METHODS: This methodological research was conducted on women aged 15 to 49 years (n = 770) with uncomplicated vaginal delivery. The short form of the Iranian women’s childbirth experience questionnaire was prepared in four stages. The first stage was exploratory factor analysis, conducted on 250 samples, the second stage was confirmatory factor analysis which was performed on 260 samples, independent of the first stage, to report goodness and fit indices, and the third stage employed items from modification indices, expected parameter change, and standardized residual covariance, leading to the short form of Iranian women childbirth experience questionnaire. Finally, confirmatory factor analysis was run on 260 samples, independent of the previous two stages, to confirm the short form and compare it with the original questionnaire for psychometric analysis. RESULTS: In the exploratory factor analysis stage, nine items with a factor load of less than 0.4 were removed, and the number of domains was reduced to five. The second stage showed that the questionnaire had a goodness of fit index. However, the third stage resulted in removing 11 overlapping items and making a short questionnaire with 33 items. Finally, the confirmatory factor analysis in the last stage showed appropriate goodness of fit for the short form of the Iranian women’s childbirth experiences questionnaire (𝛘(2)/df = 2.352, CFI = 0.881, PCFI = 0.750, RMSEA = 0.072, SRMR = 0.0862). CONCLUSION: The short form of the Iranian women’s childbirth experiences questionnaire enjoyed from an appropriate psychometric evaluation. It is recommended when applying the original questionnaire is not feasible due to lack of time. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12884-023-05378-y.