Journal Article

Measuring women’s childbirth experiences: a systematic review for identification and analysis of validated instruments

Berg, Marie, Begley, Cecily, Nilvér, Helena

2017

Overview

Background Women’s childbirth experience can have immediate as well as long-term positive or negative effects on their life, well-being and health. When evaluating and drawing conclusions from research results, women’s experiences of childbirth should be one aspect to consider. Researchers and clinicians need help in finding and selecting the most suitable instrument for their purpose. The aim of this study was therefore to systematically identify and present validated instruments measuring women’s childbirth experience. Methods A systematic review was conducted in January 2016 with a comprehensive search in the bibliographic databases PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, The Cochrane Library and PsycINFO. Included instruments measured women’s childbirth experiences. Papers were assessed independently by two reviewers for inclusion, and quality assessment of included instruments was made by two reviewers independently and in pairs using Terwee et al’s criteria for evaluation of psychometric properties. Results In total 5189 citations were screened, of which 5106 were excluded by title and abstract. Eighty-three full-text papers were reviewed, and 37 papers were excluded, resulting in 46 included papers representing 36 instruments. These instruments demonstrated a wide range in purpose and content as well as in the quality of psychometric properties. Conclusions This systematic review provides an overview of existing instruments measuring women’s childbirth experiences and can support researchers to identify appropriate instruments to be used, and maybe adapted, in their specific contexts and research purpose.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: birth experience / cesarean-section / Childbirth & labor / Childbirth experiences / Childbirth satisfaction / Citation management software / delivery / Delivery, Obstetric - adverse effects / Delivery, Obstetric - psychology / Evidence-based medicine / Female / Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Reproductive Medicine / Gynecology / Gynekologi, obstetrik och reproduktionsmedicin / Humans / Labor / labor satisfaction questionnaire / Maternal and Child Health / Maternal child nursing / Measurement instruments / measurement validity / measuring maternal / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Midwifery / Obstetrics / Obstetrics & Gynecology / parental-satisfaction / Parturition - psychology / Patient Satisfaction / perinatal-palliative-care / postpartum health / Pregnancy / Psychological aspects / Psychometric properties / Psychometrics / quality-of-care / Quantitative psychology / randomized controlled-trial / Reproductive Medicine / Research Article / satisfaction / Surveys and Questionnaires - standards / Systematic review / Validated questionnaires / Well being / Womens health