Canadian Women's Experience of Postnatal Care: A Mixed Method Study.
Justine Dol, Brianna Hughes, Gail Tomblin Murphy and 3 others
PMID 34704508WHAT IT FOUND
Mothers in three eastern Canadian provinces were mostly satisfied with postnatal care, but reports included access problems, gaps, and unsatisfactory checks of their own recovery.
Nurses delivering maternity follow-up may expect home visits and direct breastfeeding support to be valued.
Key findings
0176.1% of women said they were satisfied with postnatal care, while 20% were unsatisfied and 3.9% preferred not to answer.
02Postnatal visit counts varied: 3.2% had no visits, 15.2% had one visit, 21.6% had two or three visits each, and 37.6% had four or more.
03Women valued in-person follow-up from public health nurses and midwives, while unsatisfactory care involved access problems, gaps in follow-up, and unsatisfactory checks of their own physical recovery.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The survey was self-report online, and the authors say reflection on recent postpartum experience may produce biased or selective reporting. Only women who completed the full survey were analysed; of 761 people who self-identified as eligible and consented, 561 completed all survey parts. The survey was in English, so experiences of people who do not communicate in English were not represented. The study did not distinguish between Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, so it cannot say how care differed within these provinces. The survey did not ask how many times women saw each provider type or whether each visit was for the mother or the newborn. The study describes experiences and does not test whether any postnatal care model improved maternal or infant outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The funding statement says they disclosed receipt of financial support, but the supplied text does not name the funder.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the satisfaction reports as proof that postnatal care is adequate or that nurse home visits improve outcomes. The paper records women's self-reported experiences and does not test whether visits changed maternal or infant health.