Factors affecting maternal satisfaction with vaginal delivery: a qualitative study

Abstract

Introduction: Bestowing a maternity identity, childbirth isconsidered as one of the most beautiful, though stressful,events of life for every woman. Thus, maternal satisfactionwith the experience of childbirth plays a determinativerole in maintaining the mental health of family andsociety as a decisive indicator for evaluating the quality ofchildbirth services. The present qualitative study intendedto determine factors affecting women’s satisfaction withvaginal delivery.Materials and Methodology: To this end, the presentqualitative study was conducted on hospitalized womenin Fatemieh (PBUH) hospital affiliated to Hamadan Universityof Medical Sciences, Booali private hospital andAtieh hospital affiliated to Social Security Organizationin Hamadan province. Subjects were selected based onpurposive sampling method. The required data were collectedthrough a semi-structured interview with 15 women,who had already undergone vaginal delivery. The datawere analyzed based on content analysis method.Results: Once data analyzed, seven themes on women’sexperiences of factors affecting their satisfaction withvaginal delivery were extracted from the contents. The extractedthemes included the ‘’desire to record the uniqueexperience of childbirth’’, ‘’underlying cultural beliefs onchildbirth’’, ‘’understanding the nature of labour pain’’,‘’confrontation with ignorance’’, ‘’interaction environment:from support to violence’’, ‘’confrontation with fearand anxiety’’ and ‘’desire to hug a healthy baby.’’Discussion and Conclusion: The results of the presentstudy accentuated the necessity of appropriate culturalstrategies for implementing effective interventions toenhance maternal satisfaction with vaginal delivery andpromoting them in accordance with the main objectivesof Iran health system so as to meet WHO standards ofreducing C-section delivery rates.