New parents' experiences of postnatal care in Sweden.

PURPOSE

The aim was to study new parents' satisfaction with postnatal care and to estimate the proportion of fathers who were given the option of spending the night at the postnatal ward.

PROCEDURES

A questionnaire was mailed to new parents 6 months after the birth of their child in a Swedish hospital. The main outcome was overall satisfaction with postnatal care.

FINDINGS

Two hundred and ninety-four new mothers and 280 new fathers completed the questionnaire. Thirty-four percent of the mothers were dissatisfied with the overall postnatal care. The strongest associated factors for new mothers' dissatisfaction were: unfriendly and unhelpful staff (RR 10.3; 3.2-32), lack of support from staff (RR 6.4; 2.3-17.5), new fathers not permitted to stay overnight (RR 5.2; 1.8-14.5), dissatisfaction with postnatal checks of the woman herself (RR 2.6; 1.1-6.3) and dissatisfaction with practical breast-feeding support (RR 1.6; 1.2-2.1). Sixty-three percent of the fathers were given the option of spending the night at the postnatal ward. The fathers who chose not to spend the night on the ward were older, had other children and were dissatisfied that they were not allowed to play a greater role in the care of their newborn baby.

MAIN CONCLUSIONS

In order to increase patient satisfaction, the needs of the new family must be highlighted and more support and help provided to new parents on the postnatal ward. It is essential to have family oriented postnatal care and to give fathers the opportunity to stay overnight and involve them in the care of their newborn baby.