Abstract

For many women, labour and childbirth is a time of excitement and anticipation alongside uncertainty, anxiety, fear and pain. The memories and experiences of childbirth remain with the woman throughout her life. Clearly, the support and care they receive during this period is critical. The study aims to assess quality of nursing care offered during intrapartum and postpartum periods,  patient satisfaction with care and  to find the relationship between maternal satisfaction and some variables example, maternal age, education, duration of labor and reproductive history. A descriptive study was carried out from 22 April, 2013 through 15 February, 2014. A purposive sample of (200) postpartum women, delivered at the maternity teaching  hospital. A questionnaire was comprised of two parts: socio-demographic characteristics and History of pregnancy and Women's views of birth Labor Satisfaction Questionnaire (WQBLS4). Data were collected through interview and analyzed through the application of descriptive and inferential statistical approaches by statisitical package for social sciences  (SPSS)  (17.0) program. ANOVA (F) test was used in the statistical assessment and the figure of p<0.05 was considered as the statistically significant. The study findings, indicate that women were satisfied regarding their expectations of the childbirth process, length and holding their baby, support from husband and their relative, in addition they were strongly satisfied with items related to professional support, environment and general satisfaction. The study concludes  that the main factors identified as influencing satisfaction and dissatisfaction were, caregivers and client interaction, the characteristics of the setting, the involvement of clients in the caring process, the nurses’ perception of client characteristics, the outcome of labour for both mother and baby.

Key words: Satisfaction, nursing care, labour.