Mothers' Perceptions of the Quality of Postnatal Care Provided in Health Centers and the Associated Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Maryam Ahmadinezhad, Fatemeh Vizeshfar, Azadeh Pakniat
PMID 35372630WHAT IT FOUND
In 160 Iranian mothers, postnatal care was mostly rated good or excellent, but patient-reported perception scores were lower when different staff provided care at each visit and when relationships with personnel were weaker.
Key findings
01Mothers' mean perception score was 69.84 on a 6-102 scale, and 108 rated postnatal care good while 27 rated it excellent.
02Perception scores differed by the medical staff in charge (P=0.032), with lower total scores when different staff provided care at each visit (62.04) than when other trained personnel provided care (71.73).
03Total perception scores differed by satisfaction with health personnel (P<0.001), with lower scores among mothers who rated relationships moderate to weak (52.00) than good (69.76) or excellent (72.86).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study was cross-sectional, so it cannot show that staff continuity or relationship quality caused better perceptions. Mothers were recruited by convenience sampling from one province in Iran, so results may not apply elsewhere. All outcomes were self-reported by mothers, and the survey tool's consistency across items was 0.668, so scores may be noisy. The methods say only full-term births were eligible, but Table 2 reports 19 mothers with gestational age under 37 weeks, leaving eligibility handling unclear. Possible confounders such as psychological status, social support, economic status, and personal beliefs were not measured.
Declared interests
The study was financially supported by the Research Deputy of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, and the authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the mean score of 69.84 on a 6-102 scale as proof that postnatal care was clinically high-quality. It was a single self-reported perception score from 160 mothers in one province, and the study did not test whether staff continuity improves care.