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. 2017 Aug 29;17(1):277.
doi: 10.1186/s12884-017-1459-5.

The Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised Indicator (BSS-RI)

Colin R Martin  1 , Caroline Hollins Martin  2 , Maggie Redshaw  3
Affiliations

The Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised Indicator (BSS-RI)

Colin R Martin et al. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. .

Abstract

Background: The current study sought to develop a short birth satisfaction indicator utilising items from the Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised (BSS-R) for use as a brief measure of birth satisfaction and as a possible key performance indicator for perinatal service delivery evaluation. Building on the recently developed BSS-R, the study aimed to develop a simplified version of the instrument to assess birth satisfaction easily that could work as a short evaluative measure of clinical service delivery for labour and birth that is consistent with policy documents, placing women at the centre of the birth experience.

Methods: The six item Birth Satisfaction Scale-Revised Indicator (BSS-RI) was embedded within the 2014 National Maternity Survey for England. A random selection of mothers who had given birth in a two week period in England were surveyed three months after the birth. Using a two-stage design and split-half dataset, exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, internal consistency, convergent, divergent and known-groups discriminant validity evaluation were conducted in a secondary analysis of the survey data.

Results: Using this large population based survey of recent mothers the short revised measure was found to comprise two distinct domains of birth satisfaction, 'stress and emotional response to labour and birth' and 'quality of care'. The psychometric qualities of the tool were robust as were the indices of validity and reliability evaluated.

Conclusion: The BSS-RI represents a short easily administered and scored measure of women's satisfaction with care and the experience of labour and birth. The instrument is potentially useful for researchers, service evaluation and policy makers.

Keywords: Birth satisfaction; Birth satisfaction scale; Service evaluation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the National Research Ethics Service committee for Yorkshire and The Humber – Humber Bridge (REC reference 14/YH/0065. Consent was assumed on questionnaire completion and return.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Two-factor model of the BSS-RI (For item content see Table 3.) Item-factor loadings are indicated by arrows. Variance explained within each item by the factor is indicated by the value to the left of the item box. The double-headed arrow indicates the correlation between factors. All values standardised
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Department of Health . Maternity matters: choice, access and the continuity of Care in a Safe Service. London: Department of Health; 2007.
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    1. Redshaw M, Heikkila K. Delivered with care: a National Survey of Women’s experience of maternity care. Oxford: National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford; 2010.

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